earMusic (label)
23 February 2015 (released)
10 January 2015
The fates conspired for me to miss the show at the Garage and their subsequent gig in December and this live set suggests I missed out on something special.
The energy and power that leap at you from the speakers is breathtaking and their playing is well up to the sheer brio of their live performance. This is not anything you haven’t heard a hundred times before but melodic rock really doesn’t come better than this today.
Eric Rivers is a stunning guitarist backed up by roiling keyboards courtesy of Jonna Tee but for my money the real stars are the back room of Jimmy Jay on bass and the well named Crash on drums who make this live set happen. Eric Gronwall is a massive presence as frontman and vocalist and you can clearly hear his commands to the audience to get behind the band and this they do – the sound of a Garage crowd singing along to tracks like ‘Mannequin Show’ is quite shocking to someone who has seen the locals affecting an air of studied superiority – this crowd were there for their band and having a great time with it.
They have managed a fair few hits in the time they have been touring the world and ‘1000 Miles’ along with ‘A Shot at Redemption’ see the band blasting off and getting the crowd off their respective asses and partying.
They are all about the bombast and the brio and this set definitely shows them at their best – mental note: do NOT miss them in 2015,
