Review – Retribution Gospel Choir @ The Grapes

A night of old school jangly rock was deftly given to us punters at the Grapes, courtesy of crooners The Crookes and rock dandies Retribution Gospel Choir.

I managed to get just in time as The Crookes started their effective rock pop. It’s the second time I’ve seen them live and I’m really getting a liking for ‘Chorus of fools’ and ‘Bloodshot days’. And, hey, you can never go wrong with some ukelele, right?

As a quick aside, The Grapes’ gig space is as intimate as it comes. It might sound as it is really small, but as of late, small gig joints feel right, you know? It’s the proximity you have to the artists, it gives an extra plus to the excellent feeling of watching a band.

But, anyways, turns out that the guy next to me was RGC’s drummer Eric Pollard (should’ve recognised his American drawl amidst the Yorkshire’s accent by now…). As soon as I realised this, they started to rapidly change the equipment on stage. RGC was on stage and cracked open a few skulls with the wall of noise ‘Breaker’.

All dressed in black, RGC is a veritable rock machine. The moves are coordinated (loved Steven Garrington’s bad ass poses while playing bass), the music was timpani-shattering (I predict my ears will ring for 3 days) and Pollard’s drumming is a sight to behold.

Now, getting to see Alan Sparhawk playing guitar with his teeth/tongue was a sight to behold (something I’ve only seen Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria pull out perfectly), so that probably kicked the whole experience a notch further up.

I really wanted to listen to ‘Kids’ live, as the first time I heard it I thought about Red House Painters’ ‘Make like paper’. An unfounded train of thought, as the song is pretty independent and the only similarity is how much the guitar tone rocks my socks.

After getting my timpani destroyed by the impossibly heavy distortion from Poor Man’s daughter (ending with the creepy quiet refrain of “she sings la la, la la”), we got treated to ‘White wolf’, one of the most straight rock-out songs from RGC’s album “2”.

Their live sound is pretty nifty. A combination of solid anthemic rock with long (but not boring) passages of psychedelia make up for an experience that needs no bells nor whistles (nor microKorg keyboards – a nice change of pace).

After a few jamming pieces (‘Take your time’ – WHOA!), the gig was done, amidst a few cries for “more”, but the band was visibly exhausted, so they called it a night. Never the less, it was a simply brilliant evening (for a cheap as chips price) with two rock bands with their able hands on their equipments and their souls firmly imprinted in their music.

–Sam

Here’s the nifty set list (stolen after a gushing/ranting/emotional blackmail session)

Breaker

For her blood

Workin’ hard

Kids

Hide it away

Poor man’s daughter

White wolf

They knew you well

Your bird

What she turned into