Reviews by PeteJ (2)

Gravenhurst at The Thekla Bristol 3 May 2007

4/5 (minimum 1) on 20 May 2007
An early evening kick-off and I miss the supports. Omigoodness (1), this is the biggest crowd I've seen on the Rusty Old Boat since the refurb. And omigoodness (2) it's a Huw-less 'Hurst with Robin Allender on bass, but everyone else seems to expect this but me, so I do my best to look unpeturbed.

"Give it some ****", shouts some wag to my left as they walk on, and indeed they do, launching straight into a pulsing "The Velvet Cell", which has me discretely jumping up and down, and Nick already bent forward slashing at the strings.

Then a sequence of new songs, the second(?) of which left me wondering about a hitherto undisclosed MBV influence and the last two of which were lovely. After that, it's back into the familiar sprint to the finish-line of "Song from under the Arches" (with some quite ferocious rifferama from Robin and Nick), "See My Friends", and a stonkingly good "Black Holes". I was too far back to see quite what Nick was doing down amongst the boxes and pedals, but he made the guitar loops belch, fart and spurt in a most splendid style.

The only down point was the slightly sludgy sound, but 'twould be churlish to complain.

One encore (a gorgeous version of "The Diver") and that's that, with plenty of time to get a pint at The Cornubia on the way home.

Gravenhurst at The Cube Bristol 15 September 2006

5/5 (minimum 1) on 10 Nov 2006
Given the combination of possibly my second favourite currently active Bristol-based band playing at probably my favourite Bristol venue, this was never really going to disappoint. It's an early start (band on first, followed by film later - only at The Cube!), but by 9pm the bar is heaving, the Zywiec is flowing, and excitable boys are eyeing the entrance to the, ahem, auditorium in anticipation of a rush for the front row seats.

It's the first time I've seen Gravenhurst (in their Sonic Power Trio incarnation) in nearly a year. It's much the same set as I recall from the last time (album launch, Fiddlers, October 2005), i.e. most of the "Fires..." album plus a couple of older songs, and tonight one new one, but the experience of a year spent touring is evident in the confidence of their performance.

The opening one-two of "Down River" and "The Velvet Cell" is as thrilling as ever. "See My Friends" teeters on the brink of turning into a terrifying hybrid of "Dazed and Confused" and "Moby Dick" ((Nick on Dave: "As the hair gets shorter, the solos get longer. We had no idea when he was going to stop") but instead is fabulously psychedelic. They close with "Black Holes..." with all pedals tweaked to eleven. It's a glorious, propulsive racket.

They leave without an encore 'cos really there's nothing more to be said. Super.

• Do you know PeteJ? Login or Register to add PeteJ to your Network
• Web Feed of PeteJ's Latest Reviews
  
  
• error: parsing the remote RDF file generated an error
• RDF Metadata About PeteJ
  
  
• Add to del.icio.us