Horseman Shakes And The Draymen + The Escape + Scared of the Ocean + Envy Four + Embrace the City - 19th June 2010
Reviewed by Martin Stapleton
It's a warm welcome back this evening to Embrace The City, a young band who, tonight, entertain us acoustically. They tell us at the start that "we wanted to make this an intimate gig". Else Robinson is at the helm, her stunningly pure voice acts as the centrepiece to her two guitar chums. The trio weave petal delicate melodies around the band's own material, which include "Hold Me Now" and the early "But to Someone". A sprinkling of recognisable covers dominate. The undoubted stand out from that department is "Walkin' Away" by Craig David, of whom Tom is a big fan.
Envy Four may, at the moment, not be the tightest emo-punk combo on the planet. It's evident that they have a fair way to go in terms of collective and individual ability, but what they posess is an abundance of youthful enthusiasm. Ironically they perform a song called "There's No Guarantees". A high degree of pubescent exuberance seeps out. "Daydream" calms the hormonal surge as the vocalist describes it as "a little soppy". Normal Envy Four 'de force' (!) resumes with "Teenage Love", with a rocking outro and audience involvement aplenty. "Thousand Miles" ends a set by a bandwhich, although sometimes indulge in some twiddlesome guitars, did impress greatly wityh the arrangement of the bulk of their songs. Hopefully it points to good things in the future, especially if they can get some more gig experience.
MK's Scared Of The Ocean are a more meaty proposition. On this, their Esquires debut, they seemed to revel in their layered rock melodies and reflective atmospherics. They contain enough sonic muscle for those in attendance who have a penchant for total all-out- heaviosity. This belligerant guitar band revealed a conventional and patient approach to their loop laden rock soundscapery. For thirty minutes they wallowed gloriously in their noisy world of musical clutter and confusion.
The Escape are full of youthful energy, passion and pure powerpop. It pretty much sums up this trio whose influences seem to range from The Who to The Jam to first wave indie. In fact, their set allowed all their quasi-psychedelic and sixties echoes to weave themselves around a tight visceral groove. They have a canny knack to write imaginative compositions which seem to capture such different moods. Sometimes these songs almost seem to dwarf their stage presence, which can be frustratingly static. Always smartly turned out (much like their heroes) in tailored shirts and matching ties, they did raise a waspish comment from my fashion spotting friend who thought that Ed was wearing some "unpleasant trousers". Style aside, the boys are excitedly telling us about their new EP which, like their live shows, offers us vocal harmonies aplenty and luscious guitar hooks. As an all-round package, it's pretty chipper. It's fair to say that there is an all round off-kilter charm about The Escape.
If it's Horseman Shakes And The Draymen, then it has to be their familiar and carefree Southern swagger to accompany the straight laced blues rock. A formidable encounter. It's a performance from a band who, I feel, don't try to be something that they're not. They prefer to keep things solid and believable. These rocking lads posess their greatest strength with an ability to build songs from fairly innocuous beginnings. These reach some towering paranoic monsters without sounding too contrived. Once again, HSATD hinge on vocalist Alex's rather ravaged croon. He thrives in his throat wrestling duties. It appears from his comments tonight that it has been a fruitful and productive time for the band as they have just completed recording for their EP.