By Jase Walker
Another new venue ticked off the list in the Netherlands, dB’s in Utrecht for a band I’ve been wanting to see for a very long time, Gnome! This has been long overdue after finding ‘Wenceslas’ randomly on YouTube a few years back and getting fully addicted to their funky take on stoner rock.
I cannot overstate how much I loved interviewing these guys and chatting about all sorts of stuff regarding their history and somewhat accidental aesthetic that’s garnered a steadily growing fanbase! 22AD are tonight’s support act whom are a new one to me but as ever, check the support acts out and support your scene!
22AD kick off almost immediately after the doors open and initially strike me as a bit more alt rock in contrast to the main act tonight. They’ve got a pretty interesting sound though, which reminds me weirdly a lot of Faith No More mainly due to the sort of stuff their keys player is doing. There’s still pretty strong stoner rock elements to their overall sound considering the guitar is super mids heavy but I do wish he was a bit louder as the drums are quite strong in this room.
Admittedly the further we get into the set it’s becoming more apparent that there’s extremely strong Soundgarden and Alice In Chains influences, especially the latter when they use similar harmonized yet droney vocals. It’s pretty amusing looking around at the sheer number of people wearing gnome hats, all fully pointed up and slowly bobbing away to the beat of the music, I can imagine from the bands point of view this is a pretty odd sight.
I can imagine for an opening band for someone like Gnome that has a very strong cult following that it can be intimidating to an extent. However I can say that people are definitely enjoying it because you can just look at the steeple of the hats around the room moving back and forth to the music so I guess that’s an odd reassurance that people are enjoying it. A solid start for the crowd of hatted folk.
Gnome takes the stage, also wearing their signature hats with a Latino remix of ‘PIMP’ and the madness is about to begin! Kicking off with ‘Old Soul’ is definitely the right call with it’s funky intro and massively heavy chorus, but don’t forget the ambient break on the bridge, just a quick breather before the heaviness comes back in full force.
The distinctly more Queens Of The Stone Age song, ‘The Ogre’ kicks things up a notch and I really gotta hand it to the guys, their live sound is bloody fantastic. The guitar absolutely screams across the room while the drums and bass have real punch to their sound. This is the sort of thing that really channels proper rock and roll sound that you want out of a show when you want three guys to get on stage and just rock the fuck out. Gnome don’t even need to have songs with lyrics in to go hard either; this band has a great ear for a good fucking riff and fairly often that’s all they need to go with.
As I found with chatting with them earlier, the element of having fun is worth more than needing to have a vocal hook in a song:
Even the crowd has a weird sense of humour with starting a moshpit on a weird song of ‘John Frum’ which isn’t even a particularly heavy song! However, ‘Bulls Of Bravik’ absolutely is and people just decided to have a nice dance instead? Inconsistent yet quite amusing.
Digging a bit further back in the discography, ‘Blacksmith’ sees the crowd fully erupt into more noshing action, no vocals here, just riffs and energy and the front center of the crowd is absolutely all about that and they’re fully letting rip now! And finally the one I’ve personally been waiting for, ‘Wenceslas’, while I’m off to one side doing the daft dance for it because I fucking love it, the crowd in the middle decides that violence is the only option!
And then following it up with ‘The Gods Are Evil!’ Is a masterstroke of lacing because that pits going full-time now and they need more energy to feed that vibe! I also get another live setlist wish of mine with ‘Rotten Tongue’ which is arguably one of the heaviest choruses they’ve done, especially considering the disgusting vocals that go along with it!
We’re in the last stretch of songs as we approach 11pm and the first of it is started with a phrase familiar to any Gnome fan and that is ‘Kraken Wanker’, and that’s it: there’s no lyrics, just big riffs because that’s how Gnome fucking roll. And the finally, ‘Ambrosius’, to finish off a fantastic set and I honestly could not have wished for a better first set for my first live show with Gnome. Better late than never I guess eh?
Super fun, a bit silly, riffs upon riffs upon riffs, these Belgians know how to fucking rock out and they’re coming to a venue near you soon. Check their ÜK tour next year, buy a fucking ticket. You won’t regret it.
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