It’s a fairly sparse crowd that greets Blake Cateris from Molly & the Krells, but that certainly doesn’t bother him! Good, upbeat songs with a chatty, singer songwritery vibe, and melodies catchier than fleas. It’s a real shame that there were only a few people in, but this gig shows that Blake has plenty to offer in the solo format. He plugs that Molly & the Krells are playing a bushfire benefit on Sunday at the Crowbar, so go along & support them if you can, great bill, worthy cause!
Andy Mac starts off with a booming, percussion beat loop, sampled from thumping his guitar, not really a new trick but its effective, and a promising start. However, It turns out that he mostly deals in atmospheric acoustic balladry that, to be perfectly honest veers far deeper into Ed Sheeran territory than I’m keen on travelling. The Jeff Buckley-esque cover of Umbrella –ella, -ella, capped the set off for better or worse.
Billed as a Solo Acoustic tour, Danny Worsnop tips his hand early, by using AC/DC’s ‘For those about to rock’ as intro music. Then, if we were left in any doubt, being heralded onstage by an extended feedback drenched solo from guitarist Kaspar Jenson. The set proper kicks off with Ain’t feeling Sorry with its ‘Unskinny Bop’ bass line, and Memphis horns in the backing tapes… then into the soul drenched ‘Little Did I know’, little did I know how well this bloke can sing, he has a GREAT voice! Most of the set is drawn from his Solo stuff, so the set has a soul / metal crossover vibe.
‘Best Bad Habit’, new song ‘another you’, ‘Mine all mine’ all stand out.
By mid-set Danny seems to be having a few issues with his in ear monitors, and someone attempts to steal his lyric sheet… and the backing music goes rogue a few times, so the set loses a bit of momentum from time to time, but the punters don’t seem to mind.
The set finishes with ‘Angels’, in a bad hat for… reasons I didn’t catch, before encoring with Asking Alexandria’s ‘Moving on’.
To be honest, it was a less than spectacular turnout, (the Manning was half full) but the people that DID turn up are rewarded. You don’t often get to see your heroes in such a laid back setting. Some of the technical hitches made the set seem more real, so the fans still got one to remember.
Woulda been better in a smaller room though.
Biggs
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Adam Sivewright
