A night of assorted rock bands at Mercury drew a tiny crowd on Saturday night. We’re talking 45 people at most, including bands. This sort of thing could be a disaster but the bands handled it gracefully. In the interest of silver linings, it gave us the opportunity to see how they handle pressure and that’s never a bad thing in this industry.
Past Haunts kick things off with their signature blend of modern rock and jovial awkwardness.
The overall effect of their music is that of blending one massive chord at a time. The tracks from their latest EP “Afterthoughts” are given more life in a live setting, largely thanks to an instinct for dynamics that the recording environment does not do justice. They get a little looser with every song and by the end they’re going at full tilt. This momentum is mirrored by the audience which, although reserved at first, moves more with each passing track.
The Atlantic South boys follow with a decidedly more metal set that ramps up the energy for the meagre turnout. While the entire audience is not captive the handful of die-hard fans enjoy every minute. Their evil metal riffs are delivered with big grins on their faces. Luke Edwards points out guitarist Gareth Howard’s Past Haunts shirt and says, “How great are these Past Haunts baseball shirts? I wanted to get one too, but they only come in XXL.” Indeed both he and his voice are bursting at the seams. The performance is larger than life. The vein-popping amount of effort that he puts into his vocals is both admirable and slightly terrifying.
Dustland Express take a good half hour to set up. Like the proverbial clown car routine at the circus more and more guitarists appear seemingly from nowhere. Are they breeding them backstage as we speak? Bloody hell. Guitars and wires everywhere. Now keyboardist Kamil Govender emerges with a keyboard rig full of contraptions and a Macbook. The whole thing is like watching the elaborate setup to a magic show, awaiting the big reveal. The crowd, fuelled seemingly by curiosity, doubles in size to around 40 people. When they finally begin it’s worth the wait. The crammed stage explodes high energy mayhem. They bring in midnight, firing on all cylinders.
The massive array is even further fortified by pre-programmed backtracks but they still manages to balance it all out. A few songs in you begin to sense the underlying delicacy in the apparent mayhem, how band members manage to leave room for each other to make noise in. On paper this whole arrangement sounds too cluttered to work, but for Dustland Express it does- brilliantly. Their constant banter and teasing onstage prove that they appreciate any turnout, whether big or small. This is my first time seeing them live and I’m surprised that they aren’t more popular. It’s heavy enough for rock fans but polished enough for radio, too. With any luck their upcoming album may launch this twelve legged beast into main stage territory.
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