Caught Live Reviews:

It’s a funny time of year for the pub-based live music that forms the bedrock of The GigList’s listings.  Light nights and fine weather combine to tempt the punters out of doors to join the smokers (who’re there anyway), with the result that many venues scale back their activities or play safe by booking proven crowd-pleasers.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, if all you want’s an evening’s entertainment, but for those of us who like their music to be a little more challenging it can be frustrating.  Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to find the gigs worth going to.

Of course, it helps if one of your best mates is the leader of one of Swansea’s longest-surviving live bands, especially if they’re playing at a new venue that hasn’t even been listed in The GigList!  Thus it was that I was dragooned down to Bar Reef one Friday in the middle of June to see Sparrow Lane play only their second or third gig with new guitarist/vocalist Maria Owen.  Bar Reef, for those that don’t know, has been taken on a short lease by Allan and Helen of the Brunswick (as part of the new Rohman empire, as one Brunswick regular put it).  Indefatigable champions of live music that they are, it was no great surprise to learn that they intend to stage regular Friday gigs at the Reef, nor that they were relying on some Brunswick stalwarts to kick-start the venture.  It’s no great secret that bandleader Tony Webb has not been at all well in recent months, but he seems to have got the bug for playing live again which is good news with so many other former stalwarts of the Swansea scene having decided to call it a day in the last year or so.  The choice of material was somewhat circumscribed, with the band having only had time to rehearse five or six of Tony’s songs, but they included a crackling version of “Crazy Country”, as well as the well-worn trio of “History”, “TV Madness” and “Coastline Girl”.  The numbers were made up with some of the old chestnuts, like an angular version of “Like a Hurricane” and the set closer “Down By The River”, together with a selection of both Tony’s and Maria’s solo songs, of which her “Vampire Heart” and his “Castle Wall” were the standouts.  Unfortunately, most of the “audience” were more interested in the football and left after it finished, which was their loss, quite frankly.

A couple of days later, it was down to the Strand Bar for another band that, on paper at least, seemed a little out of place - highly-touted Llanelli rockers 21 Against.  Following a remark from rhythm guitarist and singer Paul that “we do what we do” and an admission that this was the band’s first gig for about six weeks (and their first in Swansea for a lot longer), they stuck to their guns (ignoring the catcalls for “Elton John”) and produced a belter of a set drawn exclusively from Nothing To Write Home About - the album that, when I reviewed it for Tunetown back in 2005, I called “as fine a collection of melodic pop/rock songs as you‘ll find anywhere“ - that quickly won the majority of the crowd over.

And so up to the Monkey Café for the latest in Dave Sedley’s enterprising series of “Americana” nights, this one featuring singer/songwriter Christene LeDoux.  Born in Connecticut, raised in California and resident, more or less by accident, as far as I could make out, in Austin, Texas, this entertaining lady seems to spend most of her time nowadays living out of a suitcase.  Naturally, such a restless lifestyle has rubbed off on her song writing, the subject matter of which ranged from that uniquely American phenomenon the railroad hobo, given a personal twist in the person of a recently-deceased friend who had occupied that role, to the highly personal in a song like “Sweet Patty”, a poignant semi-autobiographical tale of a young girl in an orphanage who leaves a favourite doll out in the rain, with a last message from her mother sewn into its dress.  Musical second cousin to Nanci Griffith, her lyrical sharpness and observation parallels that of Michelle Shocked, a comparison pointed up in her final song, “Dear Mr President”, an open appeal to a certain resident of Washington DC not to take the names of the world’s innocents in vain in pursuance of his Middle Eastern policy, nor their support for granted.  Sadly, attendance at this gig too could best be described as “select”, even after the on-the-door entry charge had been reduced to a paltry £3.00, but don’t worry - if you’re one of the majority that didn’t make it, you have another chance to catch up with Christene on the 18th of this month, when she plays at the Valley Folk Club in Pontardawe.  Finally, I can’t leave without saying a word or two about the newly refurbished Monkey which in many respects, such as the size of the stage and the clarity of the PA, is a considerable advance over the old venue.  My friend, however, was not impressed by the fact that to visit the ladies she had to descend one flight of stairs, go through the bar and ascend another, simply because the communicating door at first-floor level appeared to be locked.  Of such trifles are gig memories made, unfortunately.

On Disc

The Committed, The Committed E.P.   

An extremely mature-sounding debut offering from this Neath-based four-piece who’ve done a number of gigs recently with compatriots The Last Republic (see last month’s Caught Live), to whom they‘re not dissimilar stylistically, if we‘re being honest. That said, there’s not exactly a surfeit of young bands that can turn out a bunch of melodic pop-rock songs like these and the Committed leave many of their contemporaries standing with their well-honed twin-guitar attack, courtesy of Adam Seabourne (lead) and Kieran Daniels (rhythm/vox), whose interplay is reminiscent of the way that Dave Fielding and Reg Smithies of the Chameleons worked, especially on that group’s third album Strange Times.  Atmospheric (and eccentrically titled) rocker “Everyday, I Feel More And More Like Trevor Reznik” grabs the attention from the off with its searing intro and a strong vocal performance from Kieran.  Second song up, “Sever The Ties”, adopts a more reflective approach but is no less powerful for it.  Third track, “Get Out Of Town” is hewn from the same mould as the first and is probably the weakest song on the E.P., whilst the closer, “Killing Time” is another slow-burner that builds on churning guitar riffs and more impassioned vocals.  If you’ve picked up this edition of The GigList early enough, you can see and hear The Committed at the Monkey on Monday 30th June, once again supporting The Last Republic, and you’ll be able to get your hands on your very own copy of this E.P. for a mere £2.00 which, frankly, has to be the bargain of the year so far.

Panic Room, Visionary Position   

Following their sudden and somewhat acrimonious split four years ago, the members of well-regarded Swansea prog-rock band Karnataka went three ways.  Former lead vocalist Rachel Jones formed a band called The Reasoning, who played at the Uplands Tavern in January last year, but haven’t caused a blip on my radar since.  Her former husband Ian is said to be working with a new incarnation of Karnataka, in which he is the only original member, whilst the remaining four members - lead guitarist Paul Davies,  drummer Gavin John Griffiths, keyboard player Jonathan Edwards and former backing vocalist Anne-Marie Helder have, after a long silence, dusted themselves down, added acoustic guitarist Peter Charlton and bassist Alan Vaughan and reformed as Panic Room, in which guise they sound remarkably like, well … Karnataka, actually.  Fans of the latter group’s three studio albums, particularly the last one (Delicate Flame of Desire) will find a lot to please them here.  All the songs are joint Edwards/Helder compositions and it will come as no surprise to anyone who’s taken the remotest interest in her solo career that Anne-Marie has assumed the mantle of lead vocalist and (presumably) lyricist quite effortlessly.  There is, it must be admitted, no particular stand-out track, but that’s probably the point - the musicians have worked to create a variety of moods within the one album ranging from the quasi-electronic robo-pop experimentation of “Elektra City” to the Eastern-tinged “Apocalypstick”.  “I Wonder What’s Keeping My True Love Tonight” is prog-folk, both musically (largely courtesy of Liz Prendergast’s electric violin) and in its lyrical concerns.  Half-familiar keyboard and guitar figures are scattered throughout the rest of the album, especially in “Endgame”, which finishes up sounding very much like late Karnataka.  This album won’t break any moulds, but it’s a very pleasant listening experience and it’s good to see something so positive emerge from the Karnataka ruins.  How permanent a set up Panic Room is I don’t know - the band undertook a short tour in April to promote the album, but Anne-Marie appears to be continuing with her solo work in parallel.  Nevertheless, on the assumption that they’ve rekindled their enthusiasm for playing together, I shall be on the look-out for further work from this engaging sextet.

All live and CD reviews by Nigel Wassell