overlap

Some gigs turn out to feel almost like obligations, having bought a ticket months in advance and then had other stuff turn up around the same time, such that given a full choice it would have been relatively simple to decide which one to miss. And often it turns out that the effort of going anyway is more than repaid, possibly down to the lowered expectations of unfamiliarity. My tardy start means I missed quite a bit of support band Touchstone. The few soundclips on their website had me thinking of Within Temptation, and in person that's not a long way off. Singer Kim has a smoother voice than her from WT, but the band's sound in general lacks their bouncy pop influence in favour of a more extended, epic feel. There's tons of Steve Rothery type heavy sustain below the thirteenth fret, and a wall of keyboards, but the live sound does them no real favours. I don't know whether it's deliberate and intentional, or a side effect of the venue and the not being headliners, but the bass guitar drones too much over the top of what I imagine ought to be rather more tuneful finesse. On that showing I'm not rushing to buy anything, but I'd definitely give them another go somewhere else to find out whether it was just the night, or if that's how they want to sound. Being primarily known for one song can be a tricky thing to get beyond. And just as it is with Size Of A Cow or Where's Me Jumper?, so it is with Calling All The Heroes. Equally, being primarily known for one song on which the vocal element is a very major component must make life difficult when the person whose voice that is in the main has other things to do and a replacement needs recruiting. Or so you would think, but not a bit of it. I was still wondering if it would turn out to be worth my while to turn up, but almost from the second they started that question was answered. Four figures all dressed in white emerged on to the stage, and for someone who has sometimes struggled with aiming a camera at black t-shirted musicians against a black backdrop in low lighting conditions that's a welcome change, and it also makes a refreshing visual impact of its own. As replacement lead vocalist and sole guitar player, John Mitchell might have a hard job of filling Francis Dunnery's shoes, but if you didn't know better you could be forgiven for thinking he'd been singing with It Bites for decades. And what I never realised is just how much vocal Bob Dalton's nifty headset mike supplies while he's drumming, and how much John Beck's voice is also in evidence over his keyboards. Relative new boy bassist Lee Pomeroy adds vocals at some points too, and it sounds rather more like a choral round than I had envisaged. Which also answers questions about how the FD-free It Bites compares, with John B and Bob's vocals doing a remarkable job of rounding out a sound that's based around rather more than just one lead vocal. Three tracks in and All In Red nearly takes the roof off. I should explain my initial curiosity was based on loving the Eat Me In St Louis album and one or two other singles, but basically I'm pretty uninformed beyond that. All In Red is a fantastic song, and a welcome mark of familiarity, but the set goes on to include eight or nine tracks I already know so it's hardly all novelty. I'm bored of picture-taking after a while, and get to take in a bit more of what's going on rather than just take pictures of it. Again this is a band who look like being on stage together is the most natural thing in the world, and they'd rather be there than anywhere else. For some reason I'm reminded of Big Country in the whole 'this is what we were born to do' vibe, and in Mitchell they have an engaging frontman who clearly understands the difference between 'putting on a show' and 'playing some songs with some other people in the room'. As an encore, a mighty romp through Kiss Like Judas rounds off the evening, and another great gig comes to a close. Nice one. John Mitchell in big mouth action! * 'So glad you could make it' is the first line from the fabulous Kiss Like Judas, and one which neatly sums up my thoughts on the night.

Labels: gigs, It Bites