Revolution at the Castle
Posted Sat 18 Oct 2008 15:52 by lazarus.
On a musical level I had been looking forward to this show for some time. Logistically, I had my reservations. My experience of gigs at The Castle had not left me with any great enthusiasm for the place. I'm sure the people try hard, but it is effectivley a skittle alley or pool room with all of the limitations which that implies. The proof of this came to prominance in my mind when I realised that I was watching one of the finest bands of the moment playing on a 18" high stage to about thirty people, in a tiny room littered with the support band's gear, being engineered from a pool table. But the saving grace was the music and after all that is what we were here for.
Opening act, Merge in Movement, were certainly brave in their approach, playing three or four very long, mainly instrumental songs, built around hypnotic, bass-dominated lines and with a apparently free-form attitude towards their structure. I thought the songs lacked enough diversity to carry the concept off fully, but it was good to see people who not only flaunt the rules, but probably don't even realise that there are any in the first place. They reminded me of one of my favourite local bands of yesteryear, Twelfth Night, but I doubt that that carries much weight these days. For now, they might be falling slightly short of their remit, but it will certainly be interesting to see where they take their music. They did, however, seem a perfect support to the main act.
On the strength of a brilliant recent debut album, The Divebomb Revolution's game plan was simple enough. Get on stage, play a familiar opening number from their back -atalogue, play the entire new album, blow the collective socks off of the crowd, and then off home for a cup of tea and a sit down. That's exactly what they did. Like most bands, when they went into the studio it gave the band a whole range of new possbilities to embrace when commiting their work to disc. Unlike a lot of bands, when they bring that new and polished material out for a live airing, they have the ability to recreate live, more or less, everything you get from the album. Okay you may be missing a bit of sultry saxophone here and there and obviously there might be some subtle second guitar parts missing, but what you get live is as close to the recorded article as to make no odds. Any deficit in the music is more than made up for in watching three of the most creative musicians around weaving brilliantly intricate and often surprising musical threads, whilst at the same time being wonderfully animated and watchable in the process.
Some people consider rock music primative, basic...dumb even...but Divebomb's blend of nu-metal, progressive rock and etherial soundscaping is none of these. It seems to have more in common, at times, with classical music, in its approach maybe rather than its sound. If Wagner was alive today, I'm sure he would be on the phone begging for them to take him on as keyboard player. It's all there, the big riffs of Isolator, the dark resonance of When the Stream Becomes a River and the epic majesty of Epidmic, and before you know it the last chords are bouncing off of the walls, the band are out side having well earned cigarette and the audience are looking for those socks that I told you about earlier.
A brilliant performance, from a band that must surely be going places before long. My only question is...why the Castle?
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