DUNDEE LIVE - BANDS TO WATCH!!
THE WILDHOUSE + SHOCK & AWE + CHIARO - Hustlers 29-08-08
Tonight was meant to be the debut of the new lineup from Dundee's Leatherettes. Instead, 48 hours before, they'd decided to split up - as you do! I don't just mean split - we're talking personal disintegration here. So, it left us with no headliner, and two support bands who, god love 'em, were so completely professional that they were gonna soddin' well play whether there was an audience there or not - which, as it happened, there wasn't!! So, to a venue containing myself, the sound guy, the owner, a busty barmaid and the band's manager, celebrating the younger guitarist's birthday, Carnoustie's The Wildhouse sauntered onstage - anxd proceeded to play one of the most incendiary, explosive, rip-roaring sets that only they are capable of delivering. For those who may have been in a coma for the last few years, The Wildhouse are a line-up of two electric guitarists, a sea of foot pedals, and a female drummer who plays a couple of drums and a couple of cymbals while standing upright. Velvet Underground-meets-Can-meets-Neu-meets-
Hawkwind. Tonight they startwed relatively sedate with twin guitars chiming away over Sheila's metronomic drumming, with herself and Paul intoning the vocals in languid fashion. But as the set wore on, so the intensity, passion, volume, firepower and emotion climbed higher and higher. By the mid-part of the set, Sheila was hammering the shit out of those drums with an intensity that would make most drummers gasp, while buried in a sea of fx, searing leads, glissando depths, raging riffs and electrifying density, Peter and Paul on guitars, went supernova in a fashion that engulfed Hustlers in this immensity of sound like nothing else you've ever experienced. It was awesome - and there was none there to hear it. In this venue tonight, no-one hears you scream - when you're The Wildhouse!!
By the time Edinburgh's Shock & Awe reachedd the stage, Frankie boy from Kalel had made an appearance. I couldn't be bothered to tell him it wasn't always like this - just let him think we were rubbish!! Of course, the lack of an audience wasn't the only problem - due to personal troubles, the band's drummer couldn't make it - which left the guitarist/vocalist and the bassist playing to a pre-programmed backing track. But did this phase them? Did this put them off? Did it hell!! They playedd a blinder, with their three minute anthems every bit as worthy as the Ramones, every bit as crazy as The Dicators, and their between-track raps every bit as funny as a stand-up routine. They played as though the place was full - even Frankie was loving it, as the rest of us grinned like chesire cats and wallowed in some of the best, most humorour and also lyrically astute three minute punk classics that there are around today. In a different way but the same - lol - this band are as unique as The Wildhouse. They've taken the Ramones idea of short songs but entirely made the way they do it, their own, and it works a treat. You just can't fail to love this band - the humour, the playing, the power and the strength are all there. Punk that burns!!
Chiaro were never meant to be on the bill - in fact, they weren't!! Shortly before Shock & Awe finished, they wandered in from another gig earlier on that night and asked if they could play a few tracks, since they had quite a few fans who'd followed them across. I'd told them earlier that we'd had a band pull out but that they were under no obligation to do anything. But, clearly in a great mood, they set up the gear, soundchecked and, pleased with the result, proceeded to play. This was the finest gig I, and I'm sure the loucky few that were there, had ever seen and heard them play. It all gelled - the songs, playing. The band sounded great - you could hear everything. The singing was upfront and the range from whisper to soaring high-register was commanding. But it was their brand of "Physical Graffiti"-era Led Zepelin meets contemporary indie-rock songwriting and arranging that really shone through, as some truly sparkling electric guitar work cut loose, amid the vastscape of the keyboards which lent the density to a slew of mighty rhythms being unleashed by the bassist and drummer. Closing with an awe-inspiring performance of their 7 minute anthem, "safe", they brough things to a rousing end as we all applauded them loudly for a set that was imaginative, sound, strong and cohesive, but above all, enjoyable from start to finish.
As fate would have it, this was to be the last set that Chiaro played - three weeks later they'd split up. I can but feel privileged that, despite the occasional disagreement in the past, I saw them bow out on the highest note that they could have possibly delivered.
You missed one amazing night of music - sadly, your loss!!
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