Metal Faerie

Rock-It 27: Live on Stage 31.12.10

(A Blast from the Past to Ring in the New)

It is three minutes to midnight. It is three minutes to a new year. In three minutes time 2010 will be gone for always. I am speeding up and down the highway looking for a sign of Pablo Dante’s. The day that I’m on time, the devil’s coming to claim my soul. As the fireworks start to explode and cascade in the darkened, night sky, I think my soul is safe.

Finally we are here. Finally we have arrived. I hurry towards the sounds of Goo Goo Dolls’ Slide. I hurry towards the sounds of Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want and Incubus’ Wish You Were Here. I hurry towards the sounds of Rock-It 27 ... finally. I’ve wanted to review this band since the inception of this blog. It feels fitting that I should do so tonight.

They’re the perfect cocktail of nostalgia and novelty with which to toast goodbye to the old year while ringing in the newness of 2011. The music they cover and create is the reason I began listening to rock, the reason I walk the path of metal today. As the sounds of Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Californication come crashing down around us, it is as reflective and redolent as all the stirring renditions of Auld Lang Syne I’m certain are being sung in unison across the island tonight. Gratitude stirs silently within me for these musical roots.

Rock-It 27 is an experienced quartet of well-honed musicians with a solid skill set, reminiscent of alternative when it was closer to groove and grunge and farther away from the overproduced, over-processed pop with a pinch of distortion that it is today. Their sound is dark and hard, pulsating and hypnotic. Between the smoky, stormy and sometimes sultry precision of Alex Cummins's lead vocals and rhythm guitar, the sweet, savoury, soulful reverb of Danny Watson’s lead guitar and backing vocals, the deep, pounding throb of Ryan Royer’s bass and the swift flash, thrash and hammer of Harry Watson’s drumsticks, they have found the perfect blend for the band they have become. I only wish there were more people here to hear this.

As I hear the closing chords of Papa Roach’s Of Angels and Insects transition seamlessly into one of my all-time personal favourites, Foo Fighters’ Everlong, it puts me in a Rockit State of Mind like little else could in this moment, without leaving me feeling Jaded or Fallen as much else would have (this is an inside joke, lol). In all seriousness however, as my Old Year Night becomes my New Years Day, and we shift ever so slightly across the space of our lives by one more man-made marker to the sound of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Kryptonite by Three Doors Down, I am once again filled with gratitude for these musical roots, and for the band that gave me the best Old Years Night experience I have ever had on this island. Thanks guys ... and a Happy New Year to you all ^_^

FOTOS!