Bush Hall is a medium sized venue with an ornate ceiling and masonry on the walls and a carpet! It’s a beard and plaid... shirt night for the audience. The band come on stage and it’s obvious from the opening chords that this is not going to be naval gazing math rock evening. It’s all guns blasting and after a couple of numbers where they sort the sound out and a call for the room lights to be dimmed it’s a full on rock show.
They rattle through most of the new album with highlights of ‘Push It’ and ‘From now on’ and oldies of ‘People come on’ and ‘People turn around’. The band are excellent and lead singer Matthew Vasquez is clearly up for it thrashing his guitar like it’s the last night on earth. Its breathless stuff. They seem to be an amalgam of all of the great American rock bands with touches of Creedence, Bruce and even a little Steve Forbert.
The band go off after ‘Hold my End Up’ but the crowd keep singing the refrain until they come back on for a couple more.
It seems like record company issues may have kept them away for so long but they promise to be back soon and I for one will be there. A great night spent with a band right back to form.