SOUTH COAST TWO-PIECE TOUR: SLAVES & ROYAL BLOOD REVIEW

Earlier this month we headed down to ol’ blighty’s beautiful south coast to check out two of our favourite bands. We’re calling it our ‘Southcoast Two-Piece Tour’. Both Slaves and Royal Blood are a shining example of what can be achieved with a stripped- back setup. They challenge the age old ‘traditional’ four/ five piece band rhetoric by creating a huge, powerful sound from just a single four/ six string instrument and drums. Now despite these two bands both falling under the two piece category, they go about their business in very different manners.

Slaves dabble in no-nonsense punk. Guitarist, Laurie Vincent, has incredible versatility and creativity mixing angsty punk power chords with catchy riffs. He uses various pedals to make his sound stretch and ‘roar’. Ballsy distortion and overdrive layered with a trusty EHX Micro Pog pedal allows him to achieve a piercing guitar tone with the backing of beefy, sludgy bass tones. Initially, when Slaves first formed, they were looking for a drummer. Laurie took a half assembled drum kit over to Isaac’s house and said something along the lines of…..“bang this until we find a drummer”. Needless to say it worked, sounded great and they didn’t need a drummer anymore. Isaac brings an abundance of style, presence and flow with his unique style of drumming and adrenaline fueled vocal delivery. The quirk works for them. Having a drummer that stands up smashing a kick, snare and cymbals relentlessly really adds to their ‘punk’ image. I honestly run out of ways to praise these lads, I’ve used every positive adjective under the sun in my monotonous drunken ode’s and tireless ‘oi mate you should listen to this band’ conversations. They’ve really taken the industry by storm since the release of their debut album in 2015 and too fucking right!

Royal Blood are on the other end of the spectrum. Suave, sophisticated, water-tight, they’ve nailed the stadium sized sound from just a set of drums and a bass guitar. Mike Kerr’s set up is/ has become a notoriously elusive subject. Many wonder how he creates that contrastingly beefy but screechy wall of sound from just four strings. A lot of thought goes into his setup for sure, running the rig into both a bass amp and guitar amp, using various octave shifters, EQ modulations and fuzz he manages to produce something that sounds out of the ordinary. Mixed with his angelic vocals and Ben’s punchy drumming they’ve conjured a recipe that’s sure to get them a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one day.

SO……. two days, two gigs, two towns. Slaves Pier Party in Brighton on Thursday 18th May and Royal Blood at Southampton Guildhall on Friday 19th May. Here’s how it went…..

SLAVES, BRIGHTON PIER, GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL 18TH MAY 2017

The thought of seeing Slaves play a special show on Brighton Pier for Great Escape Festival is a prospect that’ll make anyone weak at the knees. It’s an event that, frankly, we couldn’t miss. Sounds great right? Surrounded by funfair rides, sea, booze, bands and sunshi………. oh wait. Yep in typical British seaside fashion it absolutely bloody tipped it down and not just for a brief while, nope, the whole fucking day and night. The heavens opened and urinated down on us all. Cheers England, top stuff you really know how to rain on a parade! We’re not gunna sugar coat it (jeez we’re smashing these puns today), it was a total wash out. We even caught Isaac pacing around the pier moments before Cabbage’s set muttering ‘fucking rain’. There’s was an idyllic plan for the day, one of horror hotel fancy dress, people screaming on funfair rides and beer soaked sunshine. A proper punk carnival no less. Instead we got soaked through clothes, half arsed fancy dress and moaning customers. Shout out to the event organisers….. you fucking melts.

Photography Credit: (Gobinder Jhitta - @gobinderjhitta / gobinderjhitta.co.uk)

They clearly had no document on their Macbook Air labelled ‘Rain Contingency Plan’. Nope the bloody donuts put all their chips on a sunny day and unsurprisingly the daft bastards lost it all. There’s a pub right at the end of Brighton Pier yeah…… you know the one. Well its capacity severely underwhelmed the amount of tickets sold, not a problem right? People are in and out buying beers. Sure, on a sunny day and also maybe if the support acts weren’t ALL playing in there! Even early on it was one in one out, a vast portion of punters didn’t even get to see any support acts. Not only that they couldn’t buy a fucking beer anywhere and whilst we’re on it the staff were about as helpful as a chocolate teapot!........ and breathe.

They did, however, eventually address the looming issue letting gig goers leave the premises and head further down the pier in their noble quest for booze. Soon enough every Tom Dick and Harry had realised there was only one other bar on the pier and soon enough it was more packed than happy hour at Wetherspoons. The poor bloke behind the bar looked like he was gunna’ walk out into the rain and just flop off the side of the pier! Poor sod.

We’ve moaned quite a lot so far and naturally this has no reflection on Slaves as a band, but the organisers of the event themselves. But, alas, we were finally sat in a pub sinking pints and jagerbombs for fun in an honourable attempt to get absolutely wasted before Slaves set and thank fuck we did. We always leave it late getting to gigs so it’s understandable when you can’t always get into the thick of the mixer straight away. But you always expect to be able to make your way to the moshpit if you want to right? We walked round the corner to reveal Slaves on the top floor of the pier’s Haunted House attraction….. brilliant stuff. Eye’s firmly fixed on the talent we walked forward only to find that the crowd had been split into ‘sections’. WHAT THE FUCK EVEN IS THIS! We’re meant to be at a punk gig not fucking Coldplay unplugged. The “friendly” security warned us that we couldn’t go any further and that we had to watch the gig from what felt like the setting of an Alice in Wonderland tea party. Mate….. I’ve just spent about 50 quid on shitty jagerbombs and pints of Carling the last thing I wanna do is stand here and twiddle my bloody thumbs! What happened next flipped the night from what felt like a tragic disaster into one of the best live shows I’ve ever experienced.

They dropped into ‘Suicide’, arguably one of the dirtiest, most energetic tracks from that early EP ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth’. All hell broke loose! Metal railings were crashing over, fat middle aged bouncers were rolling around on the floor like Peter Griffin at a Yoga class. It was carnage! This is what it’s all about, a proper old school punk riot. We weren’t going to stand quietly behind the railings whilst this glorious, angsty music was being blasted out in front of us! What fucking dipstick thought that was gunna’ work………… “you’re getting sacked in the morning, sacked in the morning”. It was proper montage like, people we’re scrambling over the security; jumping the railings this was our chance to get outta the graveyard section full of selfie sticks and snapchat stories. We wanted to be in the thick of it. That was it, elbows came out, the redbull from those extortionately priced jagerbombs rushed to my heart like a puff on a crack pipe and I bolted my way through the crowd. Side stepping bouncers like the Rugby World Cup Final. I got through, turned around only to see the rest of TRW party stood the other side of the barriers still! Bollocks.

The security staff finally regained control of Winterfell, but it was only a matter of time until the remaining wildlings tabled another push to take the castle. Right on cue, it happened. Slaves hadn’t even finished ‘Suicide’ at this point (their second track of the evening). All it required was the first note of that grotty breakdown at the end to give the eager fans the head rush they needed. We we’re reunited and continued to make our way through the crowd only to come across another barrier. FOR FUCK SAKE! This one was easy though, there were only one or two bouncers parading along the metal railings like archers on a castle wall. All we needed to do was execute the leap with precision timing. Thankfully some old bloke who looked like he’d seen his fair share of bands over the years, cleared the way and helped coordinate our Great Escape (get it……). BOOOOOM we made it! Straight into the moshpit, soaked in rain and desperate for a piss!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXuKKJtBug

As always Slaves were a different class. Smashing through bangers like Boris Johnson on a football pitch. They played loads of the biggun’s ‘Beauty Quest’, ‘Sockets’, ‘Fuck The Hi-Hat’, ‘Do Something’. The pier was going off! But……. as always there was some absolute Norris there to tell us we couldn’t party and again it came in the form of event organisers. Laurie and Isaac continually had to stop their songs midway through to address fans about the dangers of the pier’s structural integrity. Scary shit! Because of the forward surges of people there were too many bodies in the first section and therefore too much stress on that section of the pier. The onsite team were worried that the pier was going to collapse away into the sea. Not a bad way to go I suppose, intoxicated, singing and dancing away to Slaves, I could think of worse ways. In the end Slaves had to cut their set very short only playing what felt like about 7 or 8 songs we’re not entirely sure it all went by so fast!

It’s fair enough I suppose they couldn’t risk having hundreds of customers fall away into the sea and die. Maybe staging a punk rock gig on a wobbly pier wasn’t the best idea in practicality. Despite being cut short it was a fucking quality experience and one we’ll remember for a very long time!

ROYAL BLOOD, SOUTHAMPTON GUILDHALL 19TH MAY 2017

Second albums have always had a bitterly ominous presence. When the success of a debut album is so astounding and the excited eyes of devoted fans start to pierce like a pack of rabid vultures circling a dried up corpse, what else can bands do but perspire profusely under the pressure. At first it seemed that this unavoidable disease had infected one of the biggest and brightest rock talent’s to emerge from our shitty dwelling this past decade. Thankfully, it now appears that this isn’t the case at all. Having released their self-titled debut album back in 2013, Royal Blood fell off a cliff and showed no sign of returning. Heart in mouth stuff! It was a delicate time for all involved as the novelty of that outstanding first album faintly started to drift away into the distance. BUT they’re back with an almighty vengeance.

Their NEW album “How Did We Get So Dark” will be released on 16th June and frankly I’ve never been so excited for something in my whole fucking life. So far they’ve released two tracks, stadium stomper “Lights Out” and desert dirty “Hook Line and Sinker”. Safe to say the Brighton boys aren’t fucking about with this. Focus on melody and musicality seems to be on the agenda for their second album building on the raw aspects of their bluesy first record. From what we’ve heard and seen so far Royal Blood gave a whopping middle finger to second album jitters.

We jumped at the first opportunity to see the revamped RB in action, heading to Southampton Guildhall last month during their Spring mini-tour. Now to put things into perspective……. they haven’t even released a second album yet and already a gig at Southampton’s, beautiful, Guildhall is considered an ‘intimate setting’. Granted they’ll be used to playing the vast stages of Wembley Arena and the O2 in the very near future but this indicates the shire stature of their rise to the top.

Up we rocked to the library looking venue, gliding through the diversely aged crowd toward an empty bar in aid of some liquid courage. Already this felt like a ‘proper rock gig’, whatever that means? It wasn’t one of those hipster drenched edgy events where kids stand around with their phones high in the sky getting that all important footage for their Instagram stories. There was none of the, ‘I saw these when they were still playing grotty pub toilets’ from adolescent young swines that look like they’ve fallen backward through an industrial thrift store bin. We had more ‘normal’ people, plenty of Black Sabbath, ACDC, Motorhead and Arctic Monkeys band tee’s flying around and everyone was friendly; chatting to strangers and exchanging the passing smile. What a great atmosphere to be part of, none of the bullshit pretence just a bunch of like-minded music fans of all ages, sizes and creeds coming together to get sweaty and bang their heads back and forth. Royal Blood have got a top notch set of fans!

They opened with “Where Are You Now?”, the track they put together for HBO’s rock and roll show ‘Vinyl’, before briskly smashing into “Lights Out”. Already you could feel their gargantuan presence consume every heart, mind and soul in the room. It really is exactly how you’d expect it to sound so loud, brutal and suave. They have the conviction of a reputable mass murderer with an unquenchable thirst for blood. Think the shire stature of Muse locking horns with a hybrid of The White Stripes and Queens of The Stoneage. It’s a thick, grizzling bowl of tar with snappy nail biting drum rolls and elderflower sweet vocals. Already the venue had entered a state of pandemonium, they’re back, they’re loud and they’re gunna do some serious fucking damage. They then blasted back into some of album one’s big hitters with ‘Figure It Out’ and ‘Come On Over’. Still now they send shivers down the spines of even the most cold-hearted of men.

Photography Credit: (Dan Reid - @danreidphoto / danreid.co.uk)

Time for a treat as we move onto an unreleased track! Legend dictates that it goes by the name of “I Only Lie When I Love You”. For us this track sounds like the clean shaven, suit and tie wearing British brother of QOTSA’s ‘Smooth Sailing’. Sexy stop and start riffs with hallowing lyrical swagger and push and pull rhythm this song is a certified belter. It makes you wanna’ grit your teeth, pout your lips and thrust those rusty old rock and roll hips. It reaches it’s rather abrupt ending and already I’m reliving the tune in the back of my head. It has one of those really infectious flows that just sticks to your brain like industrial glue. I need another listen, hearing it once live is just a cock tease. I’m gunna’ leave Southampton Guildhall with a serious case of blue balls at this rate.

The rest of the set was packed with classics like ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’, ‘Blood Hands’, ‘Loose Change’, ‘Better Strangers’, ‘Little Monster’ and bringing the gig to a colossal end was ‘Out Of The Black’. In and amongst these tracks we indulged in even more album secrets. Hook , Line and Sinker was always tipped to be included on album number two since they played it at Reading Festival in 2015, but never confirmed until it was recently released as single number two. Live this song is an animal! Insanely grizzly, it really captures the essence of their ‘heavy rock’ side. It could potentially be a contender for ‘Favourite Royal Blood Song Ever’, only time will tell BUT…. it might knock ‘Hole’ down from its righteous perch. ‘Hole In Your Heart’ was another teaser of the evening. Starting with Mike trying his, musically, trusty hand behind a piano the track ascends into an aura of Muse like characteristics. Huge and anthemic, as the suspense build he kicks back from the piano and smashes into that brick wall of bass. He reverts back to piano for another moment of peaceful serenity before breaking again into shire carnage. At this point the whole hall is in a state of pure astonishment. How on earth have two people managed to create this much sound presence? It’s bloody sorcery I tell ya’! We left the Guildhall that night and naturally headed for the nearest spoons, both in a state of shock, delight and wonderment. We couldn’t talk about anything else but that. We’d just witnessed something truly incredible, a band that are welding their names into history right before our undeserving eyes.