Saturday 13 September - Woah, what's this? Going out on a Saturday? Is that allowed? Well it is if I'm off to see a 'loud' band, hah, hah. A solo outing to The Duchess to see Heaven's Basement supported by Tidal Fury and Undergrass. Why? Well, Thunder are touring the UK from 21 November until 30 November with support from Heaven's Basement and GetVegas, so they must be pretty good to start with. Secondly, HB have been to York before in 2005 as Hurricane Party (with The Glitterati and The Black Velvets), and again in 2006 when I saw them at Fibbers in their guise of Roadstar (with The Answer and Rose Hill Drive). That was some gig!
I arrived towards the end of set of the first band, Undergrass. Undergrass are a four piece band from York consisting of: Phil Goodrick (lead vocal), Rob Lumby (lead guitar), Danny Lee (bass), and Dave Chitty (drums/backing vocals). Forged in late 2006 when Lumby and Lee were attending the Access to Music College in York, they found vocalist Phil Goodrick busking in the streets of York and brought in drummer Dave Chitty to complete the line up. I only caught the last two songs but they are very much in the 70's rock style of The Answer or a Black Stone Cherry-lite. Apparently they are taking part in the next set of Orange Unsigned Act, so one to look out for in the future and on the brief performance that I witnessed, a band that will be getting bigger very soon.
The second support act was Tidal Fury (and on MyFace), another York four-piece consisting of: Graham (vocals/rhythm guitar), Fin (bass), Mick Moran (lead guitar), and Steve (drums). In 2007 they supported acts such as The Towers Of London, Switches, Hydrogen and Dirty Rig. Sometimes I hang my head in shame when I think of all this talent in York that I've never heard before, and I go to gigs practically every week! These are great, with a poddle-haired, stadium sized, classic rock sound and superb widdly guitar solos, but with a modern, Indie twist. Stand out songs for me were: Crazy Child, Lay Down And Take It, Dirty Girl, Velvet Star, Dance Like You Mean It, LiveIt Up, Stay With Me 'Til Summer, and the eponymous Tidal Fury. Brilliant, but the evening wasn't over yet.
After they split from their previous management in early 2007 Roadstar reformed as Heavens Basement (as in mainman Richie Havenz';s 'basement', geddit?) in early 2008, but this is a different band from Roadstar. HB are a full-on sleaze-rock band in the style of Aerosmith or Alice In Chains. The band consist of: Richie Hevanz (vocals), Sid Glover (lead guitar), Jonny Rocker (rhythm guitar), Chris Rivers (drums), and Rob Randell (bass)
Unfamiliar as the songs were to me it didn't matter one bit because Graduation, Mirrors, Never Write A Love Song, Sacrifice, Saint Routine and Executioners' Day (that's the ones I can remember the names of) are all going to be song titles that people will be talking about in the future. They play with a demon-stoked energy reminiscent of a young Def Leppard, but with way more attitude. Most of the crowd had obviously seen/heard the band before as they seemed to know most of the words and were singing along. I felt a bit like a gate-crasher at a private party, but it was a throughly fantastic night and I look forward to seeing these guys again.
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