UWI Woodstock: The Rock Arcs (cuz all the rest was filler) 15.08.10

Rivenis, Testament and I are warmly welcomed by the big, burly sound of Tearhead’s familiar lead vocals crooning Switchfoot’s Meant to Live. Standing Penance is on the stage. A remote crowd semi-circles ‘round the raised platform like judge, jury, vulture. With half of the beloved family settled before them on our old blanket, I flit around faerie-style snapping as many advantageous shots as I can. In the midst of the crowd I glimpse members of Vacant Head Space and Psilos.

It doesn’t take but a moment before my head begins to bang and my horns are raised. The energy comes easily, like an old ritual revisited. Valkyrie flashes me a smile. Hanjible salutes me with his own horns in turn. Lexx is busy setting the stage on fire. I wish the other half of the family - Avi, Andre, Kadeem - were here. We need to show these frozen and flavourless fools how to move to the metal, how to break their fukn’ necks. 

The opening chords to Godsmack’s I Stand Alone ring out. The taciturn throng responds with an enthusiastic and encouraging cheer. Reserved though they may be, they are at least still riveted. I Stand Alone leads into their second original for the night, My Pain, the title track of their recently-launched debut album. Strangers to their sound never will be again after this moment. It is a definitive and distinct thing, intense and appealing.

Hard, heavy hits of rock classics like System of a Down’s Chop Suey and Drowning Pool’s Bodies are nostalgic and exhilarating. The band’s song selections and playing are superlative tonight, their performance solid and seasoned. Hanjible’s extraordinary backing scream harmonises with Tearhead’s final sustained note as the set comes to an end, and I laugh out loud at Rivenis’ embittered exclamation of “So yea though, I hope you know that that’s the end of the show.”

I would call it an accomplished, rather inspired, start myself. 

Vacant Head Space assumes the stage, and with an authoritative Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd, starts their set. A sense of plan and purpose permeate the air, and even before I bear witness to it, I can tell they have given this performance plenty of time and thought. I am excited. I sense something wonderful brewing, something fantastic. Before long they show me exactly what it is and, finally, exactly who they are.

Gone is the pop. Still present is the dub in their cover of Slow Motion by Vybez. I do not believe there is anything wrong with a rock band covering a song from another genre, but by doing so that band can tread the rather precarious line between being what is best in and authentic to rock and being what is popular and trendy, more in the vein of party bands like Nexcyx and Strategy. They should never be afraid to get exclusive. 

This however is more than pardonable and soon overlooked as the guys and girl of Vacant Head Space go completely crazy towards set’s end with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Craig rocks out. Jonathan bangs head. Philip is a blur behind his drum sticks. Paige jumps and twirls. Rahn spins, short-circuits and then explodes with a deep guttural growl synchronous with Craig’s lead in the song. (Both twirling and guttural growling receive the Metal Faerie Seal of Approval by the way).

They give one of the most energetic, show-stealing performances I have ever seen, play spectacularly and really sell themselves as a rock band, with magnificent skills and showmanship. As the music pulses and pumps to a peak and pinnacle that few take the time to end on here, I am baffled and incredulous that this is the same band I reviewed less than two weeks prior to this event. Tonight, they are awesome.

Psilos prepares to play on the prominent platform before us. The night is no longer young, but in its prime. More than half of the onlookers have disappeared into the dark of it.  Notwithstanding the less than five hours of sleep I am to have, I am neither tired nor inclined to leave, as we wait in anticipation for the night to fully unfurl then wrap itself up again.   

It begins. The music is a seamless, fascinating fusion and flow of R&B flavoured soft rock and progressive funk, with a dichotomous and dynamic blend of myriad genres, the most discernable of which are reggae and jazz. I confess my confusion to Test as to why Christian McDonald, the electric rhythm guitarist isn’t on lead vocals. His voice, from what I remember in his previous band Eulogy, is excellent. 

Regardless, theirs is still a charismatic and compelling, stellar performance. Compelling enough to move what is left of the listeners there from the dark of the shadows into the light of the front of the stage. Lead vocalist Komi Barrow has a tonally-superb and sophisticated voice which is well suited to the love-oriented lyrical content of their songs, and harmonise quite beautifully with Christian’s backing vocals. 

Bassist Elton Wharton, and especially drummer Kevin Small both deliver distinguished and noteworthy performances of their own, as lead guitarist Scott McKenzie solos with feeling and Christian hops and twists from one foot to the other in keeping with the timing of the music’s rhythm. Psilos moves across the crowd as they move across the stage. They move the energy raised from its pinnacle to its plateau. 

The crowd responds to their recognisable, familiar, easily digestible, original music with its curious, deliciously-distorted experimental edge. I respond to it as well. And as the night reaches its culmination and end I think to myself that this is what is needed for the scene here to grow and to thrive; energy; more multi-band events for the fans, more exposure for the players and their music, for their artistry and their showmanship. 

This is why we are here.

Signed,

The Metal Faerie

ROCK PICS!

Standing Penance

Lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist Tearhead delivers big, burly song

The coolest bassist Valkyrie

Lead guitarist Hanjible, raising the horns

Drummer Lexx setting the stage on fire

"FLOOOOOOOOOR-UH!"

Vacant Head Space

Lead vocalist Paige Banfield

Lead guitarist, backing vocalist Rahn Phillips

Lead Vocalist, Rhythm guitarist Jonathan Banfield 

Bassist, backing vocalist Craig Haniff

Drummer Philip Norville

... a blur behind his drumstick

Rahn and Craig rocking out

Rahn spinning as Paige jumps to and fro

Craig rocks out as Rahn short circuits

Paige enjoys herself as she twirls, faerie-style.

Psilos

Lead Vocalist, Komi Barrow has a tonally-superb, sophisticated voice

 

Lead guitarist, backing vocalist Scott Mackenzie solos with feeling

 

Rhythm guitarist, vocalist Christian McDonald plays and harmonises quite beautifully

Notable bassist, backing vocalist Elton Wharton

Exceptional drummer Kevin Small

Favourite Quote of the Night

“So yea though, I hope you know that that’s the end of the show.”
Rivenis