Thursday 13 March 2014

The Answer with Empire of Fools and BlackWolf: The Phoenix, Exeter - 12th March, 2014

Empire of Rock

Exeter rocked last night as The Answer returned to the South West and played at The Phoenix, Exeter, having last visited and planted their grassroots take on retro-into-today rock husbandry at The Cavern in October 2011. The band was ably supported by locals [Torquay] Empire of Fools and the nationally emerging but relatively local too [Bristol] BlackWolf, two offshoots from the same rowdy roots, EoF perhaps leaning to some grunge but also some anthemic AOR a la fellow Torquayians Muse, though I may have just extrapolated rather than fully heard this. Listening to their EP Unstoppable today, I don’t think it’s my imagination, and in lead singer/bass player Mark Pascall, the trio has a vocalist who can soar with a prettier clarity than the growling of the other two bands’ singers. Ex Treatment’s guitarist Ben Brookland guested in the absence of EoF’s Steve Cobbin and he fronted some impressive licks.


The hirsute BlackWolf certainly looked the part, and I liked the vertical line of the 5-piece across the front of the stage, placed so because of The Answer’s waiting gear behind. This also placed BW’s drummer Thomas Lennox-Brown to the fore with his machine-gun drumming an excellent feature, and it’s good to hear this dominating on their album The Hunt too. 


Singer Scott Sharp has the rasp to deliver those harsher rock strains, but he also has a falsetto range which tugs their formulaic but rousing renditions to literal heights. Their debut album does impressive justice to the live lineage their performance presented. Rock horticulturalists and metaphor-followers will know what I mean.

BlackWolf

The Answer were justified headliners, and whilst I’m not going to write much this isn’t to reflect less satisfaction but rather an acknowledgement of their established class. And I have reviewed the band and their work elsewhere on this blog. What struck me the most last night about their performance is just how much the band clearly love what they do. There’s no pretence; no grandstanding. These guys didn’t attend any posh Agricultural College of Rock. They are innate farmworkers in this extended figurative referencing which harks back to singer Cormac Neeson’s declaration of the band’s intention to revive rock’n’roll from the grassroots up. They continue to plough this furrow with gutsy conviction. 

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