REVIEW: ASH, PRINCESS PAVILION, FALMOUTH (31/07/13)
Just drums, bass and guitar is all this trio needed to fill the venue with 90’s tinged, distorted guitars and beach-boys harmonies. But it wasn’t a trio from Downpatrick but London who stole the show at Falmouth’s Princess Pavilions last Wednesday night for me…
The crowd at Falmouth’s recently refurbished Pavilions were in a buoyant mood from the outset and helped give Cornwall’s own Even Nine a night they’ll remember for a long time. The band tore through a selection of songs old and new with their proven combination of riffs and melodies much to the appreciation of the Falmouth crowd. However as three petite and decidedly grungy looking youngsters from London shuffled onstage one couldn’t have predicted the lush, dense and at times hypnotic rock music that proceeded to flow out of their amps like a grunge rock volcano spewing Hole and Queens Of the Stone Age influenced lava from the town hall stage.
The band blend influences such as The Distillers, Kyuss, The Breeders and The Vines with the result being as simultaneously sultry and visceral as you’d imagine that lineup to sound. Bleech’s dense sound, rich in pulsating grooves and stoner rock riffs was punctuated by luscious three part harmonies provided by a a big haired and blues guitar toting front woman, a be suited and suave drummer and a look-a-like for Smashing Pumpkins original bassist Darcy. The band demonstrated the confidence and self-assured cool of a trio twice their age and are surely set for big things with the current resurgence for 90’s influenced grunge rock. As gig goers in rural Cornwall you couldn’t help but feel lucky at witnessing a band at the start of what will surely be a very promising career.
With two energetic support slots wrapped up and the temperature rising on a hot July evening the stage was set for the hit-laden return of indie favourites Ash. With hits including ‘Girl from Mars’, ‘Oh Yeah’ and ‘A life less ordinary’ in the first quarter of an hour alone the packed Pavilions crowd were in for a night of sing along merriment. The beauty of a band who favor the 3 minute punk-pop formula for songwriting is of course value for money during a live performance and Wheeler and co didn’t disappoint with a comprehensive reworking of the bands back catalogue, hit singles and even some obscure b-sides. The band left the stage no-doubt satisfied with the sweaty hysteria they had induced in a town hall in a seaside community on a Wednesday night and promised the fans some new material and future touring to come in 2014.
Words: Daniel Whear
