Tuesday 16 October – We’ve not been out
to a live gig in quite a while, so, sorry about that. Still we managed to get
down to The Duchess for a bit of prog rockery this week. Support came from MarcAtkinson. I once knew a chap called
Mark Atkins and we called him Kram Snikta, just thought I’d share that with
you. Anyhoo, Marc was well underway by the time we arrived and we only managed
to catch about four of his songs. He was playing them acoustically and one was
introduced as coming from his time with the band Nine Stones Close, with the
rest apparently from his album Out Of An Ancient World which was recorded with
a full band under the name Riversea. We’ve seen Marc before, playing covers in
various places around York, so it was refreshing to hear him playing original
music and, indeed, I was so impressed that I bought a copy of OOAAW.
The main acts for tonight had been
co-headlining on a European tour and I don’t know if this was an extension of
that tour or something separate as The Reasoning seemed to be playing a support slot. Anyway, it makes little difference, the
band are currently touring their latest album, Adventures in Neverland.
Describing themselves as Cardiff-based, The Reasoning consist of Rachel Cohen (vocals
& hand shakey percussion & virtual trampoline), Tony Turrell (keyboards
& vocals), Keith Hawkins (guitars & backing vocals), Matthew Cohen (bass
& backing vocals), and Jake Bradford-Sharp (drums & backing vocals). I
already have a two of their albums and recognised a couple of the tracks,
especially Dark Angel. They introduced a lot of new
material, notable Omega Point, No Friend Of Mine and the outstandingly good title track Adventures
in Neverland. The second half of the set was plagued by feedback gremlins which
forced Rachel to remain fairly static when she really wanted to bounce around
the stage a lot more. The vocals were a bit muddy and indistinct but at the
time I put that down to my ancient ears and unfamiliar lyrics. However, I was
very impressed with the new material and promptly forked out for copy of the
new album from the merchandise table.
For the final act we managed to get
within inches of the barrier and had a superb view of the stage and all the
players on it. Touchstone I had seen before
and was pretty familiar with the material from the latest two albums. Formed
back in, I think 2003, by Rob Cottingham (keyboards & vocals), the current
line-up also includes Adam Hodgson (guitars), Andre Moorghen (bass), Kim
Seviour (lead vocals), and Henry Rogers (drums). I’m not sure what it is about
their songs, but sometimes Kim seems quite awkward in her movements and
singing, and at other times she really gets into it. Whilst this time there was
little evidence of feedback, there was still muddiness in the vocals and Rob’s
keyboards were definitely too low in the mix. Sound issues aside, they made a
stonkingly good job of tracks like Wintercoast, When Shadows Fall, and Strange
Days. The less than capacity crowd were enthusiastic in their applause which
brought back both bands and Marc for the finale, a rousing sing-along of the
classic Tears For Fears track Mad World.
Both bands play a form of theatrical
prog-rock, with a touch of heaviness, which owes a lot to the influences of Pink
Floyd, Genesis, Yes and a sprinkling of Dream Theater. A great night out, but
from a sound point of view, keyboards and vocals are much better represented on
their respective albums.
