B.R.M.C Playing the Queen's Rock and Roll
Last night I saw BRMC as the second main stage act during the Music In My Head festival in The Hague. As seems to be typical of this “Howl” tour Peter Hayes opened the set with a sultary acoustic number; with his harmonica in its sling he reminded me of a bluesy Bob Dylan covering bridge sections with slightly disonant droning and breathy fills. The full band soon made their appearance and as I had come to expect from seeing them live before the mood was suitably dark, punctuated with those very stark white spots penetrating down from the heavens and smoke rising from the floor to meet it.
They have never been a band to mess around with chatting to the audience and once again they were true to form uttering no more than severn words during the hour long set, but the infectious quality and energy of the music rose slowly to crescendo as their set progressed with some of their more recognisable numbers striking a popular chord with the crowd such as “Six Barrel Shotgun” and “Spread Your Love”.
Throughout, the only complaint I felt I could have had was with something that is arguably out of their control. On two occasions the bass drum was struck with such ferocity that it was dislodged and as it pressed against the pickup it created that type of bass which you know is heavy because you feel it vibrate inside your chest. The second issue was that the balance meant the vocals were not sufficiently audible, I felt it was a shame to miss edgy lyrics like “I kill you all with a six barrel shotgun”. I advance cautiously with my criticism on the technical front because perhaps they play elsewhere tomorrow night and the house techies get the balance spot on and gig crisis is overted.
To their absolute credit their final number was a finale worthy of the last night of the proms. They did “Gospel Song” from their new album and turned it into a truly uplifiting piece. Mid song they slowed the tempo right down and began this slow tantilising harmonic build like thunder gathering in the distance which gained presence and tempo as it progressed, until it all came to a truly biblical head to round off their set. It goes to show that gospel always was the best way to speak to god.
For those interested in instruments and especially guitars it is a worth while show simply to see the sexiest Gibson Bass with a single pickup, elongated F-holes and a beautiful burnished colour around the edge.
In order to spark discussion on the subject I would be interested to know if anyone has ever seen blues guitarist Ian Siegal and Peter Hayes in the same room? Uncanny resemblance me thinks!
They have never been a band to mess around with chatting to the audience and once again they were true to form uttering no more than severn words during the hour long set, but the infectious quality and energy of the music rose slowly to crescendo as their set progressed with some of their more recognisable numbers striking a popular chord with the crowd such as “Six Barrel Shotgun” and “Spread Your Love”.
Throughout, the only complaint I felt I could have had was with something that is arguably out of their control. On two occasions the bass drum was struck with such ferocity that it was dislodged and as it pressed against the pickup it created that type of bass which you know is heavy because you feel it vibrate inside your chest. The second issue was that the balance meant the vocals were not sufficiently audible, I felt it was a shame to miss edgy lyrics like “I kill you all with a six barrel shotgun”. I advance cautiously with my criticism on the technical front because perhaps they play elsewhere tomorrow night and the house techies get the balance spot on and gig crisis is overted.
To their absolute credit their final number was a finale worthy of the last night of the proms. They did “Gospel Song” from their new album and turned it into a truly uplifiting piece. Mid song they slowed the tempo right down and began this slow tantilising harmonic build like thunder gathering in the distance which gained presence and tempo as it progressed, until it all came to a truly biblical head to round off their set. It goes to show that gospel always was the best way to speak to god.
For those interested in instruments and especially guitars it is a worth while show simply to see the sexiest Gibson Bass with a single pickup, elongated F-holes and a beautiful burnished colour around the edge.
In order to spark discussion on the subject I would be interested to know if anyone has ever seen blues guitarist Ian Siegal and Peter Hayes in the same room? Uncanny resemblance me thinks!
posted by Ryan Fender at 12:45
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