Been hanging to catch Speedstar* live for some time. With some wickedly inspiring recordings doing the rounds, the live encounter has been a long time coming.
Without any adieu, it’s straight into it. Alistair Bell’s haunting, dripping, soaring voice (that boy was born to sing)…that chunked bass, blazing guitars and crisp cardboard backbeat.
A beautiful grey haze that oozes class, draws you instantly in and proceeds to all the warm parts of your soul.
Amazing. Understated. Overjoyed. Fallen Star…slow, smoky, seductive and pristinely beautiful. Special, special mood weaves that literally bleed into the black.
It all gets a little crazier, but the mood is still there. Scathing. Scouring. Edgy. Right out onto that edge of madness, before coming back into play. Scorching one moment. Sublimely serene the next.
The spine tingling beauty of Brand New Armour. Simple guitar and vox, while a few drum repairs get underway. And then it’s back in full swing…guitars throttled once again, gorgeously harnessed emotion that caresses and kicks in the same instant.
And then Song For You totally wipes the floor. Sparse, airy and dripping out of each and every silken seam.
It all gets totally nuts again as that guitar attacks the mic ahead of Revolution’s sultry grey hues, before winding it all down to that perfectly restrained edge that only Speedstar* can pull off so awesomely aptly.
A magical encounter on all accounts. Catch 'em on the road with Motor Ace.
📷And then come Doves. Jimi Goodwin & the brothers Williams. A wave. A barrage of screams, and it’s into the instant feelgood of Pounding. And what a way to kick off!
An awesome surge that builds and builds, floats, seduces and says one wicked hello as it marches into its final double percussion throes. Fuck me dead, one song in and we’re already jelly-knee-ed.
There Goes The Fear with its totally killer melodies and passion dripping rhythms. Magical sprinkles of star dust all over the place…with the visuals to match. Simple, stark, penetrating beams. Mesmeric aurally and visually.
Things turn a little more acoustic, as those blue hues of indulgence do their stuff, before the infectiously hypnotic blur-scape and penetrating keyboards of Words just pack your bags and whisk you away to somewhere far from anywhere. It’s a beautiful trip!
Smokey dirges. Epic journeys. Slinky, spacey, remote pockets that are marvelously mellow and then crazed and rabid. Simple guitar. Astral keys. Black hole void. Bottom end rock kicks in, bulges out, then sneaks back under the covers, proving you don’t always have to be subtle.
Jimi has the lights turned onto the crowd (‘cant see a bloody thing with those spots in me face’) and that wickedly seductive moodestry comes back into play with Satellite’s awesome, awesome seduction. Chilling to the core or what? A beautiful drug indeed.
A quick guitar change and those pop draped throes are completely squeezed dry, till there’s no juice left anywheres. And just to put a little more crazed flavour in the icing, Caught By The River goes absolutely mondo bizarro, driving the carnage to the furthest points of sanity and never returning.
Beautiful or brash, Doves have it wired. One way wicked night! Mark Fraser- redbackrock.com
