Wreck Age, Beast With a Gun, The Grazing Saints, Blisster at The Murderers for Oddbox. Plus, Soulville at Bedfords Cyrpt, Norwich 14 August 2015

Odd Box, in its new home of The Murderers, presented a really strong (and loud) line up of fuzz, rock, punk and grunge and had a deservedly good sized crowd. Two Norwich bands I know and love (Wreck Age, and The Grazing Saints) and two from Yarmouth I was seeing for the first time (Blisster, Beast With a Gun).

Blisster opened the evening with some powerful surf punk pop, heavy on guitar and percussion and they seemed to get stronger and stronger throughout the set.

The Grazing Saints were next on, coming on and even just tuning up they had a great and heavy, brooding presence, the lighting and smoke only adding to that feeling. Joe was thriving in being able to be loud, very loud. The band were in fine form. Once again they were plagued with a few technical issues late on, Joe’s mic on last song Honey I Dig You, but undeterred he just howled out the lyrics off mic … it made the whole thing even more intense, primal and powerful.

They played a lot of my favourites tonight including Ghost Story, and Windows (during which Paul kissed Joe at the end of a particularly impressive solo) – the guitar throughout the set was scratchy and powerful whilst the ever steady and dependable Paul and Mick were reliable and strong as always.

Beast With a Gun were something of a revelation. Again they had a mighty presence and seem well named. Charismatic, rough and ready, gloriously raw and wonderful. Despite having no bass their sound was huge and needless to say I loved them.

I’d been looking forward all week to seeing Wreck Age again, their gigs have become something of an “occasion” and this was another special one. People danced throughout their set and some even joined in Tommy’s bare footedness … not an altogether good thing from this audience but the sentiment and camaraderie was there! They have immense power and rock and roll heritage seems to drip from every pore. Jim’s guitar is sensational, a beast of sound, as is the bass and drums. Richard on bass has a Manics cool about his style, Miles is another powerhouse on drums whilst Tommy is the focus being a tremendous front man. This band should be huge. I was delighted to hear that they are about to record a debut album so we can all listen to them between these live treats.

Wreck Age’s stunning version of Joy Division’s Shadowplay.

Many thanks to Georgie for putting on these splendid gigs, the Murderers coped well with these loud punks and rockers who must have surprised some of the football-watching regulars when the music started up.

 

ODD BOX returns – featuring some of the most exciting original acts from in and around Norwich.

FREE ENTRY

LINE-UP:

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WRECK AGE:

Street Rock!

https://wreck-age.bandcamp.com/track/ablutions

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BEAST WITH A GUN:

Garage Punk!

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THE GRAZING SAINTS:

Rock n Roll!

https://thegrazingsaints.bandcamp.com/track/some-things-never-change

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BLISSTER:

Grunge!

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FREE ENTRY
OPEN TILL LATE

Interested in playing an Odd Box night?
oddboxbookings@gmail.com

 

Once the music here had finished I decided to make my way over to Bedfords for the first “Soulville” night in the Crypt. Evidently about half the audience at The Murderers had the same idea and so there were lots of familiar faces. The music of course was fantastic and the atmosphere in the Crypt is always a bit special, tonight being no exception.

Many thanks to Georgie, Conor on sound, all at Oddbox, Grazing Saints, Wreck Age, Blisster, Beast With a Gun, Soulville, Hot Damn, and Bedfords Bar.

Hot Damn! and Voodoo Boogie proudly present a new musical venture…

S O U L V I L L E

The finest dancing music from all across the USA!
A brand new night mining our 45 collections to bring you only the hottest, deepest, filthiest and the downright funkiest in rhythm and blues, soul and funk!

Featuring our very special guest, Gas Station’s Nigel Emblin – spinning some of his delightful dancers!

BEDFORDS CRYPT // 20:30 – 2:00
£3 BEFORE 12 // £5 AFTER

See you there!

words and photos (c) richard shashamane 2015

@RShashamane

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