Gigs

Gig Review: Brigade + Slaves To Gravity + Lonely The Brave

[Venue: The Soul Tree, Cambridge]
[Date: 9 September 2008]

Fresh from winning this year’s Best UK Newcomer at the Kerrang Awards and confirming as the main support for US post-hardcore band Aiden’s European tour, Slaves To Gravity can be forgiven for wondering what they had done to deserve this: a sparsely populated Soul Tree on a miserable Tuesday night in Cambridge as part of a re-arranged Brigade tour originally cancelled due to Will Simpson’s throat being knackered. The summer was well and truly over by all accounts or maybe the post festival blues had kicked in, either way it was a poor turn out and gloomy atmosphere for what seemed on paper at least an excellent line-up featuring two of this country’s better rock bands. The shift in recent status may have resulted in a swap of line-up but as it stood Brigade were tonight’s main draw for this re-arranged date.

Local boys Lonely The Brave are one of my big tips for future stardom and they did a superb job of lifting the collective mood within these four walls with their anthemic and memorable rock. Witnessing both touring bands watch the opening act from the balcony for the whole duration of their set pretty much sums up the impact they made and the now lively crowd were also suitably impressed.

Slaves To Gravity are a whole different kettle of fish however, preferring a more calculated approach to live performance, and they swagger on stage like true rock-gods. Truth be told it was a somewhat slow start but once warmed up, they gave the audience no choice but to enjoy themselves. Reeling off tunes from excellent debut album ‘Scatter The Crow’, they come across like an Alice In Chains Lite at times but they do so with enough personality to make the sound their own. The singles ‘Big Red’ and ‘Meantime’ both sounded huge in this venue, filling the chasms of void empty space in the middle of this building with dirty and sexy riffage. In previous carnation The Ga-Ga’s, they promised so much but ultimately failed to deliver, but based on the evidence placed before me tonight they are finally onto a winning formula.

I feel nothing but sympathy for Will Simpson. Brigade, having recorded a superb follow-up record to ‘Lights’ in ‘Come Morning We Fight’, had to cancel their previous tour, promoting the new record, half-way through due to Will’s ill health. The band did the decent thing, however, and rearranged and re-booked a month down the line so as not to let the fans down, but unfortunately this was all far too soon for Will who had not recovered sufficiently enough to last all the shows.

Having to use an oxygen mask backstage to preserve his vocal chords before they played it was literally two songs in that it began to crack, leading to shortened notes and a hastily rearranged set-list. It was clear in his face and body language he felt totally dejected, as did the band, but they soldiered on and ended up coming out of this with a huge amount of credit. The show for obvious reasons lacked the urgency and passion that I would normally associate with a Brigade performance but despite the problems the new songs still sounded superb from a musical perspective. Recent single ‘Pilots’ was a real stand-out track alongside ‘Shortcuts’ and ‘What Are You Waiting For?’. Old favourites like ‘Magneto’ and ‘Meet Me At My Funeral’ were given an airing but reading between the lines it’s clear they have progressed and grown a great deal and the new material is a cut above. It has to be said that Will was excellent with the crowd throughout their set, joking with them about his vocal problems and discussing tracks from the new record. He was unfortunately unable to perform my requested track ‘Together Apart’ due to not being able to sing it but we can forgive him this once!

Although not Brigade’s finest hour, having seen them plenty of times before, it was just a mere blip on their impressive live CV. Considering the problems they faced they can be proud that they didn’t let anyone down at all and in fact made a success of what could easily have been a disaster. Now if only Joe Public cottoned on to their talents we may have quite a band on our hands here in the UK.

For Fans Of: My Vitriol, Alice In Chains, Fightstar

Band Links:
Brigade

Slaves To Gravity

Lonely The Brave

Photos © Danny Sambuca

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