On the thirty-first floor a gold-plated door / Won't keep out the Lord's burning rain

Friday 25 September - kicked off a weekend with potentially fatal consequences for my liver; two nights of beer and music, and a stag 'do'. We started at The Roman Bath where I met up with A and two of our American cousins. We were there to watch Full Tilt, a heavier-than-yer-average-covers-band, a four-piece from Bradford comprising: Derek Moulson (Lead vocals & guitar), Jim Croisdale (Lead guitar), Andy Bucaltizn (Bass guitar), and Darren O'Grady (Drums). Relying on my dodgy memory I can recall; AC/DC (Whole Lotta Rosie, Highway To Hell), Deep Purple (Black Night), Puddle of Mudd (She Hates Me), Kinks (Really Got Me Going), Guns 'n' Roses (Knocking' on Heaven's Door), Whitesnake (Fool For Your Loving), Cameo (Word Up), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way), Ozzy Osbourne (Crazy Train), Metallica (Enter The Sandman ), Blur (Song 2), and Judas Priest (Breaking The Law). There were more, but after three pints of John Smith's the memories slip away like cobwebs in a breeze. For an encore they did Rage Against The Machine's Killing in the Name, not for the faint-hearted but certainly a crowd-pleaser. Highly recommended.

Sunday 27 September - Saturday slipped by in an alcoholic fug of fine ales, fish and chips, and crowded bars full of posers (that'll be Kennedy's and the Slag and Luggage then.) And, so to Sunday where I rehabilitated my body by gently soaking it in Theakston's XB and listening to more music at The Duchess. The first band were already playing as we entered. The Troubadors (On SpaceBook) are an electro-acoustic due from West Yorkshire, comprising "Big" Steve Chapman Smith and "Lil'" Andy Healey. The sound was mixed superbly, and we were treated to a set of folky sort of protest songs, in a style reminiscent of Lindisfarne or The Strawbs. I remember one song called Lost Faith, about the loss of faith in our politicians, another, Broken Bridge about mine workers in Pontefract (Ponte Fractus means broken bridge in Latin and Old French, but Smart Alecs might want to read this article as well.) Anyway, they finished with a cover of The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want, with Steve on an electric mandolin. Top stuff.

For round two, we had a completely different outfit, The Dark Roads. They sounded like Johnny Cash sung by an Indie band. Fantastic songs; Let Go Love, Redwood Hill, Lazy Eye, Santa Fe, and something possibly called Speedball Blues. Highly recommended.

Finally, the headline act, Band Of Heathens. Now it was a bit of a shame really, because these five guys had travelled all the way from Austin, Texas, to play for about fifty of us. In the words of the band, "it would really suck if there were, like, twenty less of you." However, the small crowd made up for numbers by being particularly vocal. BOH consist of: Ed Jurdi (Guitar, Keys, Harmonica, Vocals), Gordy Quist (Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals), Colin Brooks (Guitar, Dobro, Lapsteel, Vocals), Seth Whitney (Bass, Vocals), and John Chapman (Drums, Percussion). They started the set with a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' Sin City. After that I started getting a bit paranoid, I was seeing signs of Christian Fundamentalism everywhere. The band's monitors covered a sign "the duchess" so it read "he de..uss" (He is God?) and there was a song with Hallelujah in the chorus, and another about letting the light shine it. There was a bloke in front of us who writhed about as though possessed. It was OK for A, with his mop of white hair he looked like an angel; me, I was wearing a t-shirt adorned with a glow-in-the-dark grim reaper. I could have been swinging from a gibbet by the end of the evening, especially when they sang Hangin' Tree and lead vocalist Gordy fixed me with a steely glare! Things settled down about half-way through the set and I relaxed into the music; Cornbread, Jackson Station, and more. Again, a thoroughly brilliant band and one I would heartily recommend. In fact I would have been quite happy to part with a tenner to watch any one of the three bands that played. What an excellent night.

I kiss you with my apocalypstick / I kiss you and the world is mine

Friday 18 September - and a great line-up of music this weekend that kicked off at The Duchess with three bands, two of which I'd never heard of. The Druid, Andy and I were joined for the evening by my niece who was up for The National Bat Conference at the University of York. The Druid and I had to coordinate our arrival as I had his ticket, and I managed to let him know that I was outside the venue by accidently sending him a blank message instead of calling him on my mobile. Such is my mastery of modern technology!

Anyway up. First band was Satori who turned out to be singer-songwriter Stewart King with a bunch of musicians who are helping him tour his album, called Satori. They played a stonking set. To say it was heavy rock would be to deny the diverse nature of the songs. Some were very 'eavy, some more bluesy, and all delivered with assured and dynamic vocals. Standout tracks for me were definitely; If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going, and the brilliant S.A.R. So impressed were we that the Druid and I bought an album apiece at the bargain price of just £4. On listening to the album on Saturday morning I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the production mix. The sound focuses much more on King's voice and the instruments are almost incidental, especially the guitars. In fact, the only track that really compared to the live performance was S.A.R. King's MyFace site does admit to a poor quality recording studio that has delivered a far from a professional product. So, great live, but I can't really recommend the actual album. The price probably reflects what you get.

Round two saw Leeds/Harrogate band Kasiuss take to the stage. Kasiuss started life as a two-piece but their ranks have now swelled to four, probably because the original two members found it impossible to musically multi-task live. Certainly they were a bit heavier than Satori, but they also carried off their tunes with a slick professionalism. The Flame, Killing Time, and City Lights were stadium-sized guitar rock anthems. More interesting was Rain with superb keyboards and a tempo that had my feet tapping. On the other hand, vocals were showcased by the slower-paced Midnight. Apparently they are currently working on an album, and I would certainly be interested in getting that. They are also supporting ZU2 (a U2 tribute band) at The Duchess on Saturday 24 April 2010.

And so to the headline act, Panic Room a band whose members comprise current and ex-members of Karnataka, Mostly Autumn, and Fish's band. Their first album, Visionary Position was released in 2008 and yet only three songs from that album made it onto tonight's set list. They kicked off with three tracks from their forthcoming Satellite album; rocker Freedom To Breathe, a groove-laden, big-chorused 5th Amendment, and a dark, moody Yasuni. The mood was lifted with the first VP track, Reborn and then we heard another new one, Go, rather too funky for my liking, but a demonstration of the wide range of styles that the band can deliver. The mid-point of the set, Blood Red Sky, was taken from vocalist Anne-Marie Helder's solo EP. It started quietly before turning into a heavy behemoth of a track. I Am A Cat was possibly their weakest performance, a quirky piece of fluff at odds with their usual material. This was followed by the second VP offering, Elecktra City, with its sci-fi, robotic theme. Then three more new tracks; heavy metal Black Noise, groove/rock Sandstorms, and intense metal Dark Star. The last was definitely my favourite of the evening, which bodes well for the new album. The last song was the hypnotic, Apocalypstick, full of eastern promise and the final VP track. For their encore we were treated to the forthcoming title-track, Satellite, a spacey epic ballad and a perfect end to the performance.

I very much enjoyed their first album and would heartily recommend it. This was the first time that I'd seen Panic Room and on the strength of this I would also recommend seeing them live and getting the their next album. Top class entertainment. All three bands were easily worthy of headline status.

Saturday 19 September - The Druid, I imagine, probably ended up in a ditch somewhere as he was at the York Beer & Cider Festival. The more sober amongst us waited for the evening when pocket chanteuse Chantel McGregor popped into The Roman Bath to give us a tune. Regular readers will realise that I'm being ironic here. Chantel is actually THE best guitar player that I've ever seen. After seeing her I can't pick up my own guitar for weeks because I feel so inadequate. The band includes Martin Rushworth on drums, Alex Jeffrey on bass, and of course, Chantel herself on guitar and vocals. I managed to half-inch the set list, but they don't seem to ever stick to the script. What I can confirm is that they played Bridge To Better Days and Sloe Gin (Joe Bonamassa), Voodoo Chile and Red House (Jimi Hendrix), Daydream (Robin Trower), Had To Cry Today (Blind Faith), One Of These Days (Ten Years After), Lenny (Stevie Ray Vaughan), For The Love Of God (Steve Vai), and White Room (Cream). Not in that order, and there were others that I'm ashamed to say I didn't recognise. But all were played with a nonchalance that belies her virtuoso performance. I count myself privileged to be witness to these events. Very highly recommended.

Doing the p-Pod shuffle

Tuesday 15 September - Yep, I didn't make it out at the weekend so you'll have to put up with my rambling musings instead. Porcupine Tree's The Incident has just plopped through my letter-box, and Muse's The Resistance is on its way as well, so you can expect reviews shortly. In the meantime, I have recently acquired Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I didn't have any Atomic Rooster material previously, but while trawling through some random recordings I stumbled across them playing at Prog At The BBC, playing Tomorrow Night and was so impressed that I acquired their second, and most successful album. Utterly fantastic. Whilst the guitar playing and soloing was superb, what really stood out for me was the keyboards. I could hear shades of Keith Emerson and Jon Lord in there. Not surprising really, as poking about on Pikiwedia I discovered that they toured with Deep Purple, and Carl Palmer drummed with them on their first album, so founder and keyboardist Vincent Crane clearly wore his influences on his sleeve. The great thing about this album is that despite being released in September 1970, it still sounds fresh and relevant today.

In stark contrast, The Inner Mounting Flame proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Whilst I can acknowledge the technical performances of the band members, I found this form of jazz fusion to be difficult to access. Each track sounded the same, they lacked a 'hook', which may sound shallow, but that's the way it is. I suspect that it'll take a few listens for this album to grow on me. I'll persevere.

So, on to the p-Pod shuffle, which is to say, I set my Zen Mosaic to random to see what played, and here it is:

1. 98 Pages - Help Yourself. Just one of the top tracks from the outstanding debut album, Broken House And The Halfway House, from these York-based rockers.


2. Seahorses - I Want You To Know. Back to the halcyon days of 1997's Brit-pop. This was the opening track to their only album, Do It Yourself and, of course, there is a York connection via vocalist/guitarist Chris Helme.


3. Gene - New Amusements. Taken from another 1997 album Drawn To The Deep End, I just love Martin Rossiter's voice. Bizarrely, as I'm writing this, I'm playing Take Off Your Colours by Surrey-band youmeatsix and Josh Franceschi's vocals are very Gene-esque. My world is full of weird coincidences.


4. Hope&Social - Drink The Drink. Track four is actually track four from Architect Of This Church, H&S's first album under their new moniker. I just love everything these guys do.


5. Ash - Innocent Smile. I think my Zen is a time-loop. From the 1996 album 1977. This was before Charlotte Hatherley joined the band. Charlotte is playing at The Duchess this Saturday (19 September 2009).


6. Lit - The Best Is Yet To Come Undone. Now this is why I love shuffle. I haven't heard this track for ages. This track is from their 1999 platinum selling album, A Place In The Sun.


7. Scheer - Demon. Irish alt-rock from 1996 album Infliction. This track was released as a single on 8 April 1997. Audrey Gallagher's vocals get me every time. Shame that their second album, ...and finally, got tangled in contractual difficulties with their label, 4AD, and didn't see the light of day until mid-2000 on the band's own Schism Records label. By that time the band had ceased to exist. I wonder where they are now?

You broke, my mouth, the bloody bits are spittin' out/Your grave, unscathed, the worm is countin' down the day

Friday 4 September - In an attempt to top up on our listening of original music, tonight sees 'A' and I at Fibbers where the headline act is doing a farewell gig, which is actually a bit Irish, if we like them, we'll never see them again! Anyway, first on the bill was A New Society, but it clearly wasn't them as it was one bloke and a guitar. We never worked out what his name was, but he was actually rather good. He sounded a bit like Damien Rice.

Just to confuse us a little more, the second and third supports bands had been switched, so the second act turned out to be The M62s. From the opening chord my clothes were vibrating. The drum (Mike C) was mixed way too loud and the vocals (Martin T) were lost in distortion. I'm sure at various points the drum missed the odd beat. On the positive side they sounded pretty good, a bit like Ash. The bass in particular, played by Chris W, was wicked, very good indeed. Martin also did some pretty nifty looking guitar soloing, but again, the sound was lost in the mix. Shame really. We've been to gigs at Fibbers before and, even with loud bands, we know it's possible to get a mix where the vocals and instrumentation are distinct, so there are no excuses. Mr Mixing desk, please take note.

The next act, Elan Vitale, didn't suffer so much in the mix, possibly because they weren't so loud. Fronted by Tommy (Joe 90 with side-burns), they are a York five-piece Indie/New Wave band with a distinctive and fresh sound. They had the energy of the Arctic Monkeys but had a darker edge. Tommy's vocals reminded me of Rick Witter in his Shed 7 days. Overall they were very tight, and definitely one to watch out for in the future.

And so, finally, to the headline act, and by this time it was getting very crowded. I had forgotten, but we'd seen Airheads before, strangely enough in September 2008, although that time it was at The Duchess. We only caught half their act on that occasion but I really liked them. This time they appeared to be a pale imitation of their former selves. Maybe it was because Elan Vitale were so good, maybe I was expecting more with the hype of a farewell gig. What was certain was that the enthusiasm of the crowd exceeded the talent on the stage. Sorry guys.

As the music had finished so early, Airheads didn't even bother with an encore, we made our way over to The Roman Bath where covers band Storm were in full flow. We entered to the strains of Green Day's Basketcase, closely followed by Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. They did a 10 minute medley of popular covers, followed by an unnecessary version of The Timewarp, before finishing with Prince's Purple Rain and Whitesnake's Here I go Again. A very pleasant way to round off the evening.

They hang like grapes on vines that shine/And warm the lovers' glass like friendly wine

Friday 28 August - "Hey Roj. Where are you?" "Outside The Punchbowl." "Me too, I can't see you." "I'm waving my arm in the air." "I still can't see you." "Are you on Micklegate?" "Yes." "You should be down Stonegate." "Bugger! I wondered why I couldn't hear any music." And so began other fun packed evening with the Friday-Nighters.

Because of it being the festival season, we were scratching around for live music again but hit the motherlode when The Druid spotted that Simon Snaize playing at The Punchbowl. In fact it turned out to be him and his partner in crime, Dave Keegan, or NZ Dave as we like to call him. There was a disappointingly small crowd in the back lounge, only a hardcore of about twelve of us were there for the entire performance, and two of those fell asleep on each other and had to be roused by a bar-person.

I'm not implying that they were dull, far from it. They played acoustic guitars (although there were some electronic effects thrown in) and harmonised their voices very well. There was a lot of material that I didn't recognise, and some that I did: stuff by Steve Earle, the Beatles, Neil Finn, Secret Smile by Semisonic, and Guthrie's California Stars. Apparently Simon and Dave are working on an album together. It was all very laid back and enjoyable, even the beer was a bit cheaper than usual, so altogether a very enjoyable evening.

Freedom calls my name/Serenity keeps me sane/Happiness it dulls the pain

Monday 24 August ' Why no blogs? Well, 'tis the season for festivals, hence musicians are in hiding, more or less. Also, I've been on holiday for a fortnight, therefore there hasn't been much for me to blog about, or maybe I've been a bit lame in putting finger to keyboard. So, to atone for my lacklustre performance over the past three weeks, here are some reviews of music that I'm currently listening to.

My story starts a little while ago when I pre-ordered Dream Theater's new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Why did I do that? I've no idea. I have nothing previously by Dream Theater. I recall seeing the name, and that's it. Sometimes I act on impulse and generally it turns out good, as in this case. BC&SL is made up of six tracks, running for about 75 minutes, so that should give you some idea of what's on offer. Basically we're talking prog-metal, a genre I generally find difficult to get into, although I'm making progress with assistance from Porcupine Tree. The first listen of the album gave the impression of classical music delivered via the medium of heavy rock, in a good way. Without going into a track by track listing I can say that each track is distinctive yet comprises a mini-symphony with multiple time signature changes and solo arrangements featuring all the members of the band. The lyrics are meaningful, not too poetic, and delivered sometimes in a standard song structure, and sometimes as a spoken poem. James LaBrie usually handles the singing while atmospheric growls are provided by Mike Portnoy. The drumming runs the spectrum from non-existence to maniacal, while the guitar work is to die for. Superb doesn't even come close. Whilst every track is brilliant, the highlight for me is The Shattered Fortress, apparently the last in a series of twelve musically and lyrically linked tracks spread over their last few albums that deals with Mike Portnoy's recovery from alcoholism.

I was so blown away by Black Clouds... that I started trawling Dream Theater's back catalogue and came up with a couple of titles at very reasonable prices. First up was Images And Words which turned out to be the band's second album, the first to feature (Kevin) James LeBrie, and widely hailed as their finest moment. Sounding like a car crash between Rush and Black Sabbath, many critics regard this album as one of the earliest examples of modern progressive metal. I don't know enough about the genre to comment, but I know what I like in my wardrobe and this is it. The opening track, Pull Me Under, pretty much epitomises much of their work; just over eight minutes of heavy riffs, catchy melodies, multi-layered virtuoso keyboard and guitar work, finished off with a healthy dollop of amazing lyrics. The next three tracks are diverse and yet similarly complex with their time and mood changes. Track 5 is the monumental Metropolis - Pt. I "The Miracle And The Sleeper" weighing in at over nine and a half minutes. Clearly classically inspired these is metal heaven with heavy riffs, complex drumming and emotive lyrics. The heavy bits are h-e-a-v-y, the quiet bits are the calmest metal can be yet still be holding onto your ears. Simply sublime. A lesser album might tail off at this point, not this one. Under A Glass Moon is a meld of beauty and aggression with an epic, and I mean EPIC guitar solo. Wait For Sleep gives us a haunting pause for breath before the gargantuan finale, Learning To Live, an almost space-prog-metal track. I'm making up my own genres here.

The second DT "reasonably priced album", was Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, a reference to the masterpiece track from the Images And Words album. Apparently DT were given full creative control for this, their fifth studio album. It is a concept album that deals with the story of a man named Nicholas and the discovery of his past life through hypnotic regression, involving love, murder, and infidelity as Victoria Page. As a story, it makes fascinating reading, a real tale with a savage twist to it that stretches from the present day back to 1928. Musically it is structured as two Acts comprising nine Scenes split over twelve tracks. The final tracks ends with static from a record player and marks the beginning of what people have called a meta-album where the last note or noise of one album is the same or similar to the beginning of the next. The Dream Theater meta-album spans four albums, from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory to Octavarium. Octavarium ends the meta-album by having the same piano note at the beginning and end of the same album. Concept albums, by their nature, are more about the story than the music, but once I knew the story the music just me along in a very natural way. The music is, of course, stunningly superb, but it never overwhelms, and the whole thing is beautifully constructed and executed.

Summing up then... I'm so glad I bought BC&SL as it's opened my ears to a fantastic band and brilliant music. I thoroughly recommend these three albums and will probably end up getting their entire back catalogue and recommending them as well!

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain, tears of loves lost in the days gone by

Friday 31 July - Oh god how I love serendipity. There wasn't a lot going on, musically, in York tonight, so we bowled along to The Roman Bath to see Graf Zeppelin. Guess what they play? Well, we weren't disappointed, absolutely not. Yes, they do Led Zep covers. Yes, we've heard Led Zep tribute bands before, and frankly, the last time Whole Lotta Led played was not good. But these guys are awesome.

GF are: Richard Oxby on vocals, Raith Wilson on guitar, Daz Chandler on bass, and Jon Booth on drums. They don't look like Led Zep, but this isn't a looky-likey contest. In fact Richard looks more like Boris Johnson on steroids, but when he opens his mouth...

They sound like Led Zep. Richard sounds like Robert Plant. He has the vocal range and he can hold note. The other guys play like Led Zep. Raith even abuses his guitar with a violin bow and Jon does that drum solo from Moby Dick. They do all your Led Zep favourites, including the ones you'd forgotten. From Black Dog, to Kashmir, it's all there. They even did Thank You as their encore, a song that genuinely brings moisture to my eyes.

Very, very, highly recommended.