As the sun came out and turned the bank holiday weekend into one of the hottest, consequent train network meltdown nearly occurred. Fortunately, I still managed to catch the late addition to the line-up of Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovell (replacing Sourvein) open-up Saturday’s proceedings at the Electric Ballroom. The power trio, decked out in a Slade t-shirt, a big moustache and sideburns, a v-guitar, and bandanna head fashion between them, plough through their greasy biker no-nonsense rock, interspersed with some unashamedly self-promotion plugging of their Hastings-based travelled t-shirts and witty musings: “I see some XLs out there”delivers the bassist; nothing beats a bit of flattery to get the cakes selling.
Wino Acoustic offer something a little bit different from the electrified riffage normally associated with this festival as The Obsessed frontman, Scott Weinrich, takes the stage at the Underworld for, as the moniker states, an acoustic set. Songs of personal reflective storytelling tread outlaw-country vibes aka in the spirit of Townes Van Zandt and Johnny Cash. A very respectful crowd are utterly silent, with the exception of course being the in-between songs appreciation. The loudest crowd response is unsurprisingly reserved for the tribute to the late, great, and very much missed Lemmy as the classic Motorhead tune ‘Iron horse’ is given an acoustic interpretation. It proves to be a brief but rather more rewarding than anticipated break before the heaviness returns once again.
And ex-Electric Wizard’s Mark Greening’s latest project Dead Witches really do literally turn up the volume. Occult, doomy down-tuned riffs are delivered by guitarist Oli Hill (Grave Lines) grimacing with gritted teeth as if experiencing real physical pain as he shreds each darkened riff. Featuring new vocalist Soozi Chameleone, the band power through their largely mid-tempo set but avoid any ploddy pitfalls as they perform a determined and very committed performance. Always refreshing to hear female vocals (in any musical capacity) but especially so in this mainly sausage-party scene. A couple of new songs are premiered towards the end of their set which, on first listen, continue the heavyosity with relish and heft.
It turns out Italian pysch rockers Black Rainbows provide a combined taster of what is to come by the co-headliners over at the Roundhouse on Sunday. Starting off their set with a few of their direct straight-ahead rockers before they launch into their space rock/psychedelic trippy-ness. While their first few numbers may lack the memorable anthemic singalong bangers of Monster Magnet they sure do make up for that when they are on their full-on, all-systems-charged Hawkwind-inspired space rock journey.
California’s The Watchers do suffer a bit from the misfortune of being on the same time as High on Fire, (the Ballroom was rammed for Church of Misery so I assume the same happened for High on Fire) despite their current top-10 placings in April’s Doom charts. They visually take you back to the 70s – vocalist Tim Narducci sports a rather neat Billy Gibbons-styled beard and shades – while musically they mix the latter stages of that decade with the subsequent 1980s’ metal sound, especially in the case of the later Ozzy Sabbath period and the Ronnie James Dio era Sabs, but with an additional splash of grunge for good measure. Although their mighty fine ‘Sabbath Highway’ tune says it all really, as old-school metal provides the soundtrack to riding a Harley Davidson chopper along the highway in the Californian sun; and although I found my head still floating around the solar system with the sound of Black Rainbows, The Watchers do this classicist metal-riffarama stuff rather well.
