Gig reviews for February 2012

Hell's Addiction, 3rd February

Trevor Locke reports.

One of those nights of musical magic that makes Leicester's live music scene what it is: be in the right place at the right time and wow you can experience rock like nowhere else.

I had known about Wave of Brine before I got there. Lead singer Andrew Garratt had told me about his new band, so I wrote a piece about it. Click here to read the news item.

Wave of Brine © Trevor Locke

Big sounds were the order of the night. The gig took off to the sound of Wave of Brine. Having got together in 2011, the trio are putting themselves out there now. Andrew Garratt's lead vocals were backed by large guitar works and tight playing from the group.

A mainstream sound and a set of original songs and covers were delivered with panache and precision, in an energising performance. A varied set of songs kept it going and there was some engaging melodic content to get your ears round. Not bad, not bad at all.

Motherlode: scorchingly great guitar works but the band was an enigma. A quick visit to their Facebook page left me still trying to figure them out.

Motherlode © Trevor Locke

That aside, the three piece group put on an impressive set of stoner rock sounds. Sounds like Led Zeppelin and Cream were music to my ears, with mind-blowing guitar passages from Simon Alexander and atmospheric vocals from Graham Fieldhouse being driven along by the drumming of Neil McBride.

It all hearkened back to a bygone golden age of British rock but boy was it good to hear.

Motherlode's web site.

The crowd packed into the front of the stage area; a lot of people had turned up tonight, which is really encouraging.

Several rock stars were spotted in the audience.

Hold on tight because Hell's Addiction are about to take you on a roller-coaster ride which will make Alton Towers look tame.

Front man Ben Sargent led the charge; galloping behind him were Liam Sargent, guitar flourishes flashing like a sabre in the sun, Jay Green firing away from the bass and Luke Morley on the kalashnikov with his sticks.

They surged into the room with a tidal wave of powerful music. Kings of hard rock, their sparks flew off the stage with megawatts of energy.

Each song drew fervent cheering from the assembled multitude, just as it should be because this is not music you just sit and listen to. This is incendiary bombardment. Hair raising, adrenaline pumping, compulsively foot stomping, majestic... I'll exhaust my dictionary if I'm not careful. Let's just say it was an utterly awesome set of gloriously hard rock anthems.

Addictive? Yes. Crowd pulling? Yes. Great tattoos? Yes. When it comes to 'let's 'ave it' hard rock, they know how to tick the boxes. On a hypothermically freezing night, this was like going into a musical sauna.

Ben Sargent's staccato vocals were like Zack de la Rocha meets Kurt Cobain. He nearly blew his chords out! What a stunning performance. Members of this band came from De Sade (I remember them well), Dirty Cocktail and Forgotten Sun... the passion and the energy was tangible.

A great band playing on a night of storming rock. They completed their hour long set to thunderous acclaim from the crowd.

Hell's Addiction's web site.

Read our review of Hell's Addiction at the Soundhouse on 15/07/2011 here.