John

" I'm John, he's John (pointing at guitarist Johnny Healey), We are John" says drummer John Newton as the two-piece grace the stage of Falmouth's Cornish Bank.

There's no messing around here, they kick in with the thundering Sibensko Powerhouse. What a noise, you almost have to blink to check there are only 2 men on stage. John's guttural vocals rise over his immense drumming and complement a succession of killer riffs from Johnny. They go straight into the tune that brought this band to my attention, A Song For Those Who Speed in Built-Up Areas. It's direct, catchy, heavy, and hard, a theme that continues throughout the gig. These guys don't do background music and this crowd here tonight is lapping it up as a pit starts to generate down at the front of the stage.

There are a lot of four-piece bands out there who don't even get close to the amount of noise made by John. There's no sense of there being something missing, or wondering what might be if they had a bassist or another guitarist. You wonder more how anyone else could even prise their way into this band and be heard. Johnny's pedal board has about 10 boxes of tricks that keep the sound fluid and interesting and all sorts of heavy, and John quite simply pounds the shit out of that drum kit.

There's plenty here from most recent album Nocturnal Manoeuvres including the mesmerising Austere Isle and the colossal Jargoncutter. It's the new stuff that we're really excited to see though. They belt out their excellent recent single, Theme New Bond Junior and the pit begins to expand, we show our appreciation the way we know how . It has to be mentioned that this song was the No1 Vinyl Single in March, proving there are lots of people who own a record player out there with some serious taste!

New Single Trauma Mosaic is a proper builder, it grows and grows and the song builds and rises into a tremendous crescendo towards the end. Beer gets spilled!

We get a host of tracks from their repertoire tonight, but, they've got 2 songs left for us, and they've saved a couple of belters, one of them being the sprawling Non-Essential Hymn, it seems to go on forever as we get lost in it and try to make sure everyone stays on their feet at the front. The set ends with a classic from the Out Here on the Fringes album - Future Thinker. The crowd shout for an encore but they leave us wanting more, and to be fair they must be pretty spent after giving us everything they've got and more for the last hour.

John just exude, energy, talent, promise, and most of all a shitload of noise. Go and witness them, they will not disappoint.

This superb independent venue in Falmouth has seen the likes of Squid, Snapped Ankles, and Holiday Ghosts play here recently and as John has shown tonight, keeps pulling in exciting talent. Support your local venues.



Setlist

Sibensko Powerhouse
Song For Those Who Speed in Built-Up Areas
Squad Vowels
Western Wilds
Austere Isle
Jargoncutter
Trauma Mosaic
Theme New Bond Junior
Hopper on The Dial
Untitled new track
Non Essential Hymn
Future Thinker