(((O))) Live: Pearl Handled Revolver • Teiger – Camden Club, London

The Camden Club, just over the road from the Roundhouse, is a new venue for me although I must have walked past it dozens of times without it registering. Headed down a dark, narrow staircase, you approach the colourful main space from beside the busy kitchen and bar, opening out to a slew of tables and chairs packed around the stage. Sitting underneath strings of fairy lights, and black chandeliers, it has the feel of an exclusive night, a member’s club. But it’s been here since 2016, holding live music, comedy, and cabaret shows regularly.

The entertainment tonight is certainly not new to me. Teiger, London’s rising stars of brightly heavy prog rock, play alongside their friends in Pearl Handled Revolver, well-seasoned psych-blues raconteurs based in Bedford. I’ve caught this pairing together at Esquires in Bedford – another real gem of a UK venue – in 2024 for a late running, booze-fuelled end-of-year party. Tonight’s show is a more sedate affair in this seated venue, feeling like a showcase for the recent new material of both bands. It’s the last show in a short UK run, overseen by London Prog Gigs: the ever-reliable promoters of innovative and unusual bands – constantly expanding our conceptions of what “prog” means – in great venues, at a reasonable price. 

Our show begins with the shadow of a cowboy hat cast on screen, while projections of trippy fractal, geometries run past us. It must be Teiger time. Clad in her trademark hat, leather boots, and a long feather-adorned robe, singer/guitarist Talie Eigerland certainly embodies the acid, western vibe which is the tone for the evening. It’s in the imagery of set staples like ‘Sahara’, performed with powerful vocal ad libs tonight. It’s in the country twang on new tracks like ‘Bloodwork’, complete with enthusiastic clapping from bass-player Phil. And it’s deeply embedded in the dirty roadhouse stoner rock of our double-denim-clad, pearl-handled headliners.  

Teiger. Photo: Diana Revell

I reviewed Teiger’s Hope & Anchor show in April 2024 and have seen them a number of times since. At that show, I was delighted to hear material from their forthcoming second album, like ‘Luna’ and ‘Chalkduster’, for the first time. Well the word on the street is that Teiger’s sophomore record is now recorded and due for release next year, and it certainly sounds like it, judging by the way those two new tracks have been developed since April. I’ve caught ‘Luna’ – a beautiful apocalyptic ballad with an airy, eerie, dream-like feel – live a few times now, hearing it played with an ever-increasing feeling of confidence and coherence. Tonight it sounds tighter and more focussed them ever, with a wonderful, swirling rapid-pan effect on the vocals. Another new (but as yet unnamed) track aired tonight might well be Teiger’s heaviest song to date: “Can’t you see that the world is ending?” is the lyric that keeps playing on repeat in my head.

It’s wonderful when Talie announces that Simon Rinaldo, keyboard player from tonight’s headliners, will join Teiger on ‘Chalkduster’ and their Portishead cover ‘Glory Box’ – bringing an extra sense of depth to each track with his ominous, swirling undertones.  

Teiger. Photo: Diana Revell

Tonight’s Teiger setlist was perfect for me, mixing these now well-honed new songs with older favourites like ‘Law of Diminishing Returns’ (complete with extra growl tonight, and especially pleasing, rippling tom-work) and the closer ‘Hydra’ (played with extra energy). And the Camden Club’s punchy live sound added an extra crispness to drummer Jon’s rumbling drums and textured rhythms.  

“We’ll try not to break any pedals, strings . . . minds?” Talie says at one stage, and fortunately all of the equipment remains intact. And the audience’s minds – if not actually broken – are no doubt expanded. Heads are nodding, hands are clapping, and excited conversations are brewing, as Teiger’s show affirms their reputation as one of the UK’s most unique bands. And we’re all dying to hear that new album in full… 

Teiger. Photo: Diana Revell

Pearl Handled Revolver, a five-piece, fill the venue’s stage with black-clad dudes, and fill the air with surreal, gravel-voiced blues. Tall, long-haired, denim shirt worn loose and bedraggled like a pirate’s blouse, frontman Lee Vernon makes for a striking figure – and certainly has a charismatic voice to match. Easily compared with Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Mark Lanagan, his voice has a warmth and character that helps explain the band’s appeal over sixteen years and five studio albums. And his harmonica – always a highlight of their songs – playing runs from brash and swaggering to subtle and atmospheric.  

For the first few songs of an hour-long set, I’m hearing a strong selection of blues-rock songs, played with soul and taste. But it’s during the second half that their sound really takes off for me, tightness and tautness giving way to expansive jams and an increased psychedelic feel.  

There’s a clear nautical theme emerging from Pearl Handled, which appeals to me greatly. On ‘Black Rock, an epic voyage through strange prog-tinged lands, Lee sings that, “I still believe we are turtles in the ocean . . . in this sea of greed and total disillusion”, as his bass-player’s auto-wah squelches like boots wading through wet sand. And maybe Lee “will prevail in the Belly of the Whale”, as he hopes in the song of that name, as the band crafts a quiet, strange atmosphere from tightly-brooding rhythms while the keys morph from solemn chords into Italian horror prog soundtracks.  

Pearl Handled Revolver synthesise all the best parts of early blues, 60s psychedelia, heavy 70s rock, and 90s grunge, combined with a weirdness and a certain panache that is all their own. While I confess that a seated venue isn’t the ideal space for a band with some much dance appeal – I recall grooving along in the sweaty darkness, beer in hand, back in Bedford – it’s been a great opportunity to appreciate the layers to their songs, their musical rapport, and the quirky charm of their performance.  

It’s another exciting and thought-provoking show courtesy of London Prog Gigs, introducing me to another great Camden live music venue, and demonstrating how Teiger and Pearl Handled Revolver are two of the best bands in the UK.