The first real gig in over a month, after everything shut down in mid-December, when BM had attended a private party with Grateful Dead tribute act One-eyed Jacks, which was very good but people were more there for the party than the band.
So on a shitty cold and wet January night it was up to Bloc, only to find (well, found out during the day in fact) that the scheduled gig by Herbert Powell had been cancelled due to one band member getting Covid, or having to isolate. No matter, the always resourceful drummer Romeo Taylor was going to do a solo set instead.
It is a good but unusual venue, as people were still having meals when support act, Glasgow death metal act Death Bed started soundchecking, and BM suspects a few romantic pizza meetups were completely disrupted when they came onstage and gave us a good half hour of extremely loud but glorious three-piece action. The music took in many influences, from Nirvana at their most furious to classic doomers like Extreme Noise Terror and probably Metallica. The soundmix was great, accentuating the grinding bass, scalding guitar work and hit-it-to-fuck drumming. The vocals were yelled, almost vomited at times, and quite wee moshpit started just yards away from people finishing their pizzas, quite surreal… These guys do have music available, at least one album ‘No Breeze in Hell’ on Bandcamp – they are well worth checking out.
Romeo Taylor took the stage not much later, singing to backing tracks of rave-influenced music and getting the crowd going once again – BM had to leave early so missed the likely inevitable rendition (and maybe the last, he has threatened) of ‘Kingdom of Scotland’ – although not doing what he expected tonight Romeo is such a trooper and it all came together well
BM is just so glad to be out in the wild again, getting pummelled by live music and chatting to fellow audience members, whether friends or strangers – let us hope that it continues and it is not another false dawn…
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