Think Tank, Newcastle, 21/06/16
The Sage, Gateshead, 22/06/16
Well this was a strange
week and one that, musically, could only be described as 'eclectic'.
I had never been to a show at Newcastle's impressive Sage venue and
seeing that one of my wife's favourite singers was playing there, I
thought I'd kill two birds with one stone: seeing the venue for the
first time and chalking up some serious brownie points. Alas,
Beverley Knight cancelled her show (some flimsy excuse about a sore
throat. Pfft...) so the wife and I ended up drinking cocktails all
afternoon instead.
Knight's rescheduled
date, only a couple of weeks later, turned out to be the day after a
show that I definitely wasn't going to persuade my wife to attend.
San Diego's finest death/grind exports Cattle Decapitation were
playing one of Newcastle's better small venues, Think Tank. I'm not
the world's biggest death metal fan and probably couldn't describe
where the genre lines lie, but I do enjoy the heavier side of things.
Cattle Decap being a band that rarely makes it to these shores, I
just couldn't miss it.
Cattle Decapitation are
not as nasty as the name suggests. Whereas death metal bands have a
tendency to write meaninglessly about unpleasant subjects (early
Carcass, any Cannibal Corpse song), and Cattle Decap play up to that
at times, they also carry a strong ecological message in some of
their work. Originally an all-vegetarian band, their songs tell
stories about nature (often in bovine form) reclaiming the Earth from
humanity. There was a guy next to us smoking a vapour cigarette,
apparently dry ice flavour, and I'm voting for nature to start with
him.
Playing as a five-piece
tonight, they make some pretty exacting requests for monitor settings
and plunge headlong into some pretty fierce DM/grind, played at a
speed that would enable them to travel through time. The
musicianship on display is impressive as they go through breakneck
tempo changes and some of the finest riffs the genre has to offer.
What sets them apart from many of their rarefied scene is that their
songs are memorable, brought alive by Travis Ryan's vocals. More
than just a DM screamer, his voice easily alternates from low-end
growl to pitched scream, giving the songs actual choruses. Alas,
tonight the sound wasn't great (the
make-everything-as-loud-as-possible mix doesn't help) and some of the
more technical elements of their songs are lost in the mud, but it's
still easy to tell that these guys have some serious talent, and it's
great to seem them put it to use writing songs about the end of
humanity.
Suffering through the
next day with ringing ears and, being at the age where you're
genuinely not sure if your hearing will fully recover, I spent the
day worrying that my hearing would ever fully recover. With a
curious mind and a very excited wife, I headed to the Sage. Having
only walked through the vast, pristine foyer before, I was suitably
impressed by the wood-lined hall known as Sage 1. Deigned for perfect
acoustics, it looks unlike any venue I'd been in before and we took
our seats high up in the top gallery with a bird's eye view of the
stage. Having arrived early, we were 'treated' to a DJ set from a DJ
whose name I can't remember. His modus operandi appeared to be to
badly mix songs that you might hear at a wedding, adding ill-fitting
beats at seemingly random intervals. So jarring were the rhythms at
times, it made the previous night's entertainment sound like
Coldplay.
The stage, adorned with
a staircase separating drum riser and keyboard banks, lit up and
Knight emerged at the top. Opening with 'Soul Survivor', she sounds
impeccable and puts on a hell
of a show. Please bear in mind that I have no real affection for
soul music, and that the previous night I willingly went to see a
band called Cattle Decapitation, but I was seriously impressed. The
only song of hers that I really knew was 90s hit 'Shoulda Woulda
Coulda', and it's not a song I would immediately associate with a
powerful singer, more a well written pop song. As Knight started
going through tunes from her new record Soulsville,
it was clear that I was in the presence of a serious talent and there
were times when the voice went straight through you to give a little
shiver down the spine. The Sage's sound quality was impeccable and
suited her voice to a tee.
Ably
supported by an 8-piece band (a soul Slipknot, anyone? Didn't think
so) we get hits like 'Gold', 'Greatest Day', 'Get Up' and 'Flavour Of
The Old School' (yes, I had to look this up). She's grateful to the
(admittedly somewhat diminished, given the rescheduled date) crowd
throughout and the main theme from the stage throughout is fun: the
band join in with synchronised dancing and use the stage to it full
effect, and Knight herself is a consummate performer, giving her all
both vocally and physically. The crowd lapped it up.
Bravely,
Knight gives us a note-perfect Whitney Houston cover as well as her
rendition of 'Hound Dog', showing the versatility in that wonderful
voice, before ending with an uptempo 'Come As You Are'. People leave
the venue smiling from ear to ear, myself included. While I've
probably not had my narrow musical horizons widened too much, I've
been treated to a reminder of a time just 15-20 years ago when pop
stars were actually singers,
and the good thing is that lots and lots of other people here
remember it too. My overriding feeling is one of bemused pride that
my little city can attract such diverse musical quality as the last
two nights have shown, and has the venues to do it justice.
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