Long time
reader, first time contributor, so go easy on me.
I'm doing
this for a friend - let's call him Willie Bolland, as that's his
name – because he told me he was supposed to review the gig, but
then he got drunk and went home long before the show started.
He didn't
even make it to the doors opening.
A full
scale weekend on the lash is now apparently something that he used to
do because after a few pints on the Saturday afternoon he was
finished.
A
casualty of the post lunch bevvy.
By the
time The Aboriginals walked onto the stage in Bakers I expect that
Willie was either in the land of nod, or watching reruns of
Coronation Street with his elderly mother who he still lives with.
He will
regret that because he missed a fantastic wee local band.
Getting
the ball rolling with a very impressive cover of the Arctic Monkeys
'you look good on the dance floor' that they managed to fill with all
the youthful sarcasm that the song deserves was a good start, and
while their own material that followed it wasn't quite up there at
the same level of quality it wasn't far off it either.
Not far
at all, and snapping at the heels of a band like the Arctic Monkeys
isn't a bad place to be.
Out of a
run of young local bands that I have seen over the previous six
months it is these lads who are standing out as being the ones to
watch.
There's
some second hand post punk thrashing going on that will be picked up
from them listening to the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand I
suppose rather than some of the older acts, but then there's also
some of the twist that Oasis brought to a more traditional rock
attitude that most bands can't seem to avoid any more that gives the
whole sound a lot more accessibility to it.
Praise
has to be forwarded to the bands front man who carries himself like a
rock star.
This
attitude, along with a good voice, is the main difference between
what The Aboriginals are doing and what their peers are getting up
to.
There's
no apparent discomfort on stage and it seems obvious that when he
steps onto it that he claims it as his own.
Best
young band that I have seen in a while.
The
Longhorns aren't a young band, and that's obvious as they know
exactly what they are doing on stage.
It's a
hand in glove performance that only comes from laying down the music
over a long period of time with the same people surrounding you.
Each of
them know exactly what they should be doing, and when they should be
doing it.
A friend
said that they hadn't played for about a year, but you wouldn't be
able to tell.
The music
itself could be roughly claimed to be classic rock.
Not heavy
rock, but classic rock.
The sort
of sixties rock that delved into RnB and spawned the short lived pub
rock scene before delivering punk and then a second wave of mod
bands.
It's all
there in what they are playing and while that might seem like a big
messy pot of influences it's not.
It all
makes complete sense and when I was told that this may have been
their last gig my heart sunk.
Good
bands like this should never retire.
They
should keep popping up every once in a while to show the younger guns
how it should be done.
They are
really everything a good band should be.
Sonic
Templars have been taking one confident step forward after another
for a while now and all the hard work is paying of.
Very
often I've thought that locally there is always one band who will
drop the ball in a line up and my attention starts to wonder, but
this was by this point three on three as they were hitting it hard.
Plenty of
referencing was firing about the company I was in.
Muse got
name checked as did Radiohead, but equally so did Blur, Jeff Buckley
and some bands from much further back who are described as being Brit
legends.
Once
again there's a huge pot pourri of influences in display, but again
there's nothing jarring about how they are all mixed together to
promote what the band are wanting to get out there.
It is
very easy to imagine them on a much larger stage in front of an
enormous audience.
Club and
pub environments are far too restricting for them.
What they
play needs a great deal of room to breath in and walls are just a
restrictive force holding it all contained in far too tightly.
Put Sonic
Templars on before a band like Muse in Wembley and five minutes after
them exiting the stage all their merch would be gone and their fan
base would have multiplied by a ridiculous amount.
They have
a co headlining gig coming up soon with Stonehouse Violets in Glasgow
that Mainy from this blog is hosting and I'm not missing it.
The
chance to see a full set from them rather than a limited support slot
is one that I will recommend to all and sundry.
The
headline act of the night is already a favourite of mine, and while
some bands start off very seriously, but you can't help but see them
as a joke, they are working arse from elbow and started off as a joke
between mates and ended up through the quality of the musicianship
being a band you can laugh with rather than at.
Take an
old punk and an equally old fella who fancied himself as a Scottish
Bono at one time, add in a youngish glam rocker who is hanging onto
an androgynous Motley Crue fixation, and bolster the band with a
dreadlocked bassist who may have took a wrong turning on his way to
Bloodstock and a young singer/songwriter on drums and what you get is
Outstandifold and the Wettygrippers.
These are
five individuals who should never be allowed in a room together, but
what sweet music they make.
Nothing
should work, but everything does.
They are
a rock band in every sense of the word.
Rock
solid, rock hard and a bit of Rock Hudson to.
They are
actually so tight that that they are water tight, and it's rumoured
that double glazing companies are looking to sign them up as the next
generation of all weather sealant.
The whole
joke aspect of them is very obviously only skin deep.
They are
far removed from being a parody band and if you removed the visual
aspect of them and the in set laughs what you are left with is a very
serious sound indeed.
As a
hobby band of a sort they are seriously kicking the arses of those
who see their band as a career option.
The
forthcoming debut album that will be heard without the humour layered
over it will be a surprise I expect.
John Kerr
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