By David O’Neill
You shouldn’t us to tell you that grass roots venues are the lifeblood of the music industry. It equally goes without saying that, without them, no new bands would ever get to perform. Unfortunately, too many small and middle-sized venues are closing due to lack of support for them and the music they promote. It is only by the public continuing to support these venues and the dedicated cohort of promoters who push a wide variety of musical genres that up and coming bands are getting the exposure and opportunity to perform live.
I have to say we are extremely lucky in South Wales as there are multiple small to middle-sized venues that regularly promote local musicians. This applies from Newport, through Cardiff and into Swansea. Having recently covered one such venue which is regularly bucking the trend, tonight was an opportunity to do the same in the capital of Wales, Cardiff, in a venue on a single street (Womanby Street) where there are no fewer than four live music venues catering for a wide variety of musical tastes. Tonight’s three course menu was in Fuel Rock Club and featured a relatively new band, an established band from just across the Severn estuary and a band who haven’t performed since their singer left almost two years ago but who previously had a very strong following in the Cardiff area. More on that later…
Kicking off the night were two piece alt-rockers Revenant. On perusing their socials prior to the gig, I thought I recognised the singer/guitarist from a previous incarnation. However, there was no music to find on streaming services. However, it didn’t matter, the gruff vocals and talented multi-instrumentalist of Lateef did not disguise the musical ability on show. With a guitar pedal board that looked like it needed an octopus to use it, a synthpad by his mic and a guitar, there was no doubt he could play. The drumming was no less impressive either. They did announce that one single, ‘Forward Thoughts‘ was dropping that night onto streaming services and they have a headline gig coming up in August. It was a set full of energy and technical ability that was well received by the crowd that were present.
Next up were the Bristol based pop-punk rockers, downcast who kicked off with ‘A Weight That I Can’t Stand‘, a full energy definitively pop punk rocker, that was well received by the growing crowd. ‘Hell‘ followed next, a bit more emo than pop punk but still a good track.
This was the order of the night with the energy picking up as the crowd started to grow in readiness for These Five Years. Whilst the set included mainly older stuff they did include the two latest offerings, ‘bittersweet’ and recent Singles Club #DailyPick ‘raincheck‘. Altogether a good set from band that have obviously been playing together for some time.
Finally, as These Five Years started to set up, the almost sellout crowd packed into the venue. This band have had a very loyal local following and presales for tickets indicated this as they sold 60 per cent capacity in advance. With two singles released from a forthcoming EP they had obviously reinvigorated the local support despite not having played for almost two years.
The core of the band was the same – Adam Evans (bass), Carl Sturdy (lead guitar) Joel Niersmans (rhythm guitar) and Josh Davies (a new drummer also) – but the addition of the new singer James O’Neill had garnered some enthusiasm and favourable comments from Adam Walton on ‘BBC Introduces’ on release of the first single (‘Medicine’). The follow up release (‘Anything At All’) also rapidly gained some interest and both were included in the 45 minute long set which kicked off with ‘Enclosure’ and ‘Mea Culpa’ before ‘Medicine’ and ‘Landing Light’ really started winding the now capacity crowd up. Many of them were singing along with the old and new lyrics. ‘Better The Devil’ is a full energy track and really got the crowd going before the latest release, ‘Anything At All’ was sung word for word by the crowd.
Barely time for a breath, except for the new singer, James who said he needed to do more cardio before he does this again! So it continued, the upbeat full of energy songs were winding the crowd into a tighter and tighter mosh pit with each song. Towards the end of the final track, ‘I Hope You Know’, James came down into the crowd to join in, however, it wasn’t long before they had him up in the air, (which is no mean feat as he is a big fella!).
It was obvious that the crowd had missed TFY – and the good news is that it’s probably not going to be another two years until the next gig!
- These Five Years The Scouting Session battle of the bands at The Fleece – another great medium-sized grass roots venue, this time in Bristol – on Sunday 23 June.
Well done to all three bands and the crowd for making a small grass roots gig on a Thursday seem like the bands hadn’t been away at all. If you are checking the music out be careful to use the links here for Revenant as there are a couple of bands with the same name on social media. Also be aware that the tracks for TFY on streaming platforms will have a mix of Harry (the previous singer) and James (the new singer) on them.