{"id":1118,"date":"2014-06-10T14:50:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T14:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philpriston.com\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2014-06-10T14:50:55","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T14:50:55","slug":"rival-sons-at-the-scala-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/philpriston.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/10\/rival-sons-at-the-scala-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival Sons at the Scala, London"},"content":{"rendered":"

At which point does\u00a0a person have to put their hand up and say, “OK I am a fan”? I have seen the Rivals 3 times, each closely timed to the release of a new album; all of which still get regular listens among\u00a0my,\u00a0generally, eclectic collection of iTunes and Spotify playlists.<\/p>\n

Do I qualify as a fan?\u00a0Despite\u00a0having no band posters,\u00a0without keeping ticket stubs and most definitely\u00a0not owning a band T-Shirt? I don’t own any band T-Shirts for that matter; which is probably quite unusual for someone who listens to so much; yet understands so little about music.<\/p>\n

OK – So here it is… I think I might be a fan of the Rival Sons… There, I said it!<\/p>\n

The location for last nights gig was the Scala, near Kings Cross in London.\u00a0A small, fun and very sweaty venue with sadly, somewhat average acoustics. Luckily, no one\u00a0cares. At first glance the very British crowd seems restrained as Jay Buchanan et al open up with “Electric man”. He gives it his all with plenty of stage presence and\u00a0the addition of a little ‘James Brown’ theatrics; throwing himself to the floor. The band rattle through 45 minutes of mostly new album tracks, for me, “Good Things” and “Open my eyes” are the standout tracks\u00a0from, “Great western Valkyrie” which went on general release in the UK on the day of the gig, 9th June 2014.<\/p>\n

The new\u00a0album\u00a0is an interesting mix of distorted, sometimes self-indulgent fuzzy guitar, It has a real ‘American frontier’ feel, a sense of blues in a Wild west context… If that makes any sense at all? (I did mention above I love, not necessarily understand music) Their live performance echoes this feeling and the crowd spend more time swaying than jumping as we progress through the evening’s entertainment, a definite departure from earlier gigs and albums.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0four song encore starts with, ‘Manifest Destiny’<\/a>, flies into ‘Pressure and\u00a0Time’ <\/a>& ‘Keep on Swinging’<\/a>, getting everyone finally jumping, before (and ignoring the drum solo)\u00a0finishing with a somewhat jammed out version of, “Face of light”<\/a>.\u00a0One of my absolute favourite\u00a0‘sons\u00a0songs. I\u00a0can’t help but question the logic\u00a0of finishing on that, rather than the buzz of having jumped around like crazy, but then what do I know.<\/p>\n

This was my first gig since I moved out of London. The 2 hour journey home, 1am bedtime and then 6am start today has left me feeling a little jaded. Yet, I have a smile on my face and find myself humming Electric man every time the office goes quiet. Good times had with\u00a0more to come. Bring on the summer!<\/p>\n

Full set-list for the gig is up at setlist.fm<\/a><\/p>\n