Gig time again. I had checked out both Psych Emergency on their Bandcamp page and had seen a video of Thunderwolf and was impressed with both enough to want to check them out the next time they played. That time took quite a while with Thunderwolf canning a previous gig and Psych Emergency not playing locally since I discovered them, as far as I know, so it was a bonus that I get to check both bands out on the same night, two birds with one stone so to speak. None of these bands have physical recordings issued but I did check out some online stuff from the other two bands before I headed off to town on Friday night. This was a ticketed event and when I got there, about a half hour before the first band, there was a sold out sign on the door, so a good result for the bands, although sold out in the Darkroom means about 100 bodies I think.
As the poster states, this was a rock showcase, so it was gonna be loud. I'm not all that much into straight ahead rock as much as I use to be, I do like my music a bit more adventurist nowadays but still I enjoy good rock.
I wasn't sure of the band order for the night and with local amature bands like these lot, there is no "Headline act" so to speak so I kinda expected the running order to be from top to bottom as in the poster above. This was not the case and it turned out that the band at the top of my list was the first to play, Psych Emergency is a good name for this group and hard psych rock is an apt description of what I heard them play this night. A three piece band with the guitarist fulfilling the singing duties.
These guys were awesome, some quiet parts to some of their songs before they ripped into some pretty titanic riffs and inspiring guitar pyrotechnics, their energy was palatable and I was really taken with their music and playing. The vocals were the weakness with the singer saying at one point that he really liked the next song they were going to play because he didn't have to sing. For me, they turned out to be the best band of the night and I hope to catch them again soon.
Thunderwolf, another three piece and slightly older blokes, were a more hard rock outfit, kinda like in the Wolfmother mode so to speak. They rocked out really well and had some great riffs and good melodies. Both Guitarist and Bass player sang, although the Bass player was the lead vocalist. Their vocals though, were pretty shouty and mostly unintelligible, with neither being particularly strong singers. I did enjoy their set a lot.
The third band, Smokin' Voodoo, when they started in on their first song, were sounding to me to be the most experimental of the night, but that though quickly evaporated as what looked like Twin Brothers on guitars and vocals, started in on a pretty sloppy set of heavy music whose set was a little more difficult for me to pin down as to the exact style they were playing. I didn't really connect with their sound much and again neither were particularly good singers and were pretty shouty in their delivery. The audience reaction, although still enthusiastic, was fairy muted compared to the rest of the bands, giving credence to my feeling that they were the least enjoyable act of the night.
Final act was the four piece Skelter. The longest haired act of the night, led but a tall lanky stick of a man with an impressive long mop of very red hair that would have most woman in fits of jealousy and man he could sing. Best singer of the night by a country mile, and one of the better ones i have yet seen at the Darkroom. They played a most enjoyable set of what could only be called classic rock. Think Black Crows perhaps as a rough comparison. They rocked out really well and had some really catchy riffs and were the most commercial sounding act of the night.
Overall, I had a great night and saw three bands that rocked my world for a few hours. Psych Emergency were my fave of the night as the band that I thought had the most palatable energy and the best music.
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