Buffalo Bones, Wot Gorilla?, Death Rays and Dead Sons @ The Harley
Opening duties was by Buffalo Bones, from Leeds. Starting with some mild blues rock which progressively got more and more interesting (and, yeah, heavier), they went for some grunge stuff. The very tribal ‘Strangest of feelings’ (all about that creepy intro and wicked bass-love this one) and ‘Silence is golden’ were cool ditties. They closed the proggy-lite ‘Left before I arrived’, a prime cut saved for the last. Top choice.
Although appearing that they wouldn’t make it on time, Wot Gorilla? took the stage and started to do their thing. Which is a very cool type of math rock, so you know the drill: weird drum patterns, odd time signatures, lotsa energy and a decent amount of tapping.
They opened with ‘wegowaybacklikespinalcordsandcarseats’ and got sold on their wares. There was this particular song called ‘QWERTY’ that really hits the spot.
So far, the first half of the show was fast paced rock. For the second part, and certainly seems to be on purposed, the bands were more suited for a desert landscape (no cactus provided, sadly).
Death Rays (of ardilla) walked over, looked at each other and decided to just let it rip, starting with ‘8 motherfuckers’ and ‘Last lover’. Their set was extremely noisy, but sometimes it did get a little saturated, but still cool. I still got 10% hearing in my left ear, hopefully they can finish the job soon?
Anyways, ‘Liquorice lips’ was a particular high moment, preceeded by an extremely rocking cover of The Sonics’ ‘The witch’. Depending on the mood of the song, Thomas Tietzsch-Tyler (guitar/vocals) switched guitars from his arsenal of axes. All guitar sounded sweet, specially after pouring out of that monster of an amp, a beat-up valve Selmer that howled during ‘Gypsy time’.
Continuing with the desert/Americana mood for the night, Dead Sons came into stage. Armed with a drummer, an organist, a guitarist, a bassist and a percussionist, the band seemed to be absolutely concentrated on doing their stuff, with interaction being kept to a minimum.
Dead Sons’ set was good, even if the guitar was a tad too loud in some songs, so much that it came off muddy and drowned a few of the instruments and the voice, but still, their set was pretty solid, with special kudos for ‘Hold on’, ‘Quest for fire’ (love the hoo-haas) and the absolute killer that is ‘The Hollers and the Hymns’. That one track is unbelievable good.
4 pretty good bands in a good night. Can’t complain. You want rock? Have Buffalo Bones. You want math rock? Grab Wot Gorilla? Want some psychedelic stoner rock? Munch on Death Rays (of Ardilla) Want some stark music to drive in a desert highway? Get Dead Sons. Different genres, but none of them seemed out of place in a very solid night of rock.
—Sam
Links
Buffalo Bones
Website. Facebook. Twitter. Myspace.
Wot Gorilla?
Myspace. Twitter. Bandcamp. Last.fm.
Death Rays of Ardilla
Dead sons
Website. Myspace. Soundcloud. Facebook.
Sloucher.org 