with Wolves in Alcatraz and New Age Grace
Reviewed by Thomas Needham
Photographed by Kevin Gaughan
As Stoke-on-Trent’s Wolves in Alcatraz belatedly took to the stage, I fiddled away with my camera’s settings, desperately trying to push that one Dick and Dom in da Bungalow song to the back of my mind. For better or worse, any preoccupation I had about how that awful, mangy feline managed to rhyme ‘Trent’ three consecutive times was dashed by the feverish, scratchy opening to ‘Smith Williams Jones’. An unhinged, structure-defying Frankenstein of a song, Wolves in Alcatraz have their cake and eat it too. Toss Paradise City and It’s The End of The World As We Know It into a tray, add a dollop of Pearl Jam, whack it in an oven and set to the same temperature as Hell’s waiting room. Not hell- just warm enough to start getting nervous. Deliciously over-the-top, it’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t work but does.
The set only featured three songs from their 2022 debut outing, This Isn’t Art… This is Rock N Roll, with the band instead delivering a variety of new songs. While Ben’s aside to ‘go f**king mental’ during the solo of Savage Love was instead met by people simply enjoying the ride, heads daintily bobbing along, the real highlight of the set was More. The audience may not have moshed the night away but the crowd was more than happy to chant along to a song that captures a manic, rabid energy that gives a subtle, perhaps unintentional nod to Focus by Hocus Pocus. As an aside: to the heckler that told them to do a cover of Electric Six’s Gay Bar, you are so right, next time Wolves in Alcatraz grace us with their presence I hope it makes an appearance in their set, after all Luke already has the drum roll locked down in Breed.
Despite Red Top Agenda taking aim at Britain’s political and press elite, it excels as a showcase of the band’s musical chops rather than particularly effective or unique messaging (more on this later). Ben Lesse’s vocals were at full throttle; it’s a testament to his ability that it didn’t give out once, not one song was immune to at least one all-out vocal tirade. I’m admittedly a sucker for when bands have brief, building interludes that pull the guitar and vocals away- some may call it a tired gimmick, sure, but I’ll always love hearing a band’s rhythm section receive the due regard they deserve. Bassist Dave Owen certainly gives the goods and poor Luke Morgan, the band’s drummer, deserves special kudos for bestowing Duffy’s with an incessant and wonderfully indulgent performance for 40 straight minutes.
The size of the audience and the intensity of the performance had promptly turned the stage into an impromptu sauna marking the first time I’ve ever been truly jealous that Kevin (the actual photographer) was in shorts. It was while promptly fleeing to stock up on refreshments, that it became clear to me that Wolves in Alcatraz had vindicated themselves; they are indeed, ‘a force to be reckoned with’. The set may have grown a little repetitive for me personally but there’s no doubting the technical ability on show. If you’re a hard-rock fan, you’ll certainly get a kick out of them.
If I had a penny for everytime a band played a song called Satellites at Duffy’s Bar on the 17th May, I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot, but it’s funny it happened twice. Despite this, New Age Grace brought a contrasting gothic-rock sound to the evening and their own commendable drummer in Chris Swirles, whose syncopated hi-hats in the aforementioned Satellites and his martial rhythm in Porcelain brought the necessary juice to really bring the band together.
With Kenny Cassells’ despondent, droning, reverb-soaked guitar licks straight out of bands like Bauhaus and Tomasz Csabi’s simple yet solid bass, the band is dominated front-and-centre by the refrains of vocalist Amy Louise. Not Like Them gave her the space for a sustained serenade that tumbled gracefully over an ever-cascading instrumental, truly bringing the best out of the band. However it was their newest material, Mechanical Heart that really caught my attention; with vocals like a boomerang, wrapping around the refrain ‘round and round and-’, it’s easily the catchiest showcase of Amy’s commanding ability, and if push came to shove, my favourite song of the entire evening.
Bassist Tomasz Csabi is absolutely solid with his grooves but his abilities are only really highlighted on Wake and Without Conscience with a not-so-sneaky nod to Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill attached. The swanky running bass in the latter song gives me hope that in new material the bass will have a greater focus. Their website may well describe the bass as ‘understated’ but in a band positively brimming with bombast, it’s important to highlight because working on this will bring New Age Grace to the next level. There’s great potential here and with new material already being recorded, New Age Grace have much more left to say.
If you ever feel lost, as if you’ve seen all life has to offer, let me bestow upon you some sage advice I’ve acquired in my old age – if a band touts a theremin, everything will be just fine. And if you need that kind of action in your life then let me have the pleasure of introducing you to the Nottingham-based headliners, Eryx London, who for all intents and purposes, are more pedal than man.
The rhythm section’s made up of bassist Ali Findlay and drummer Colin Ward; their contributions may be simple but they’re meticulously refined to allow for open improvisation and frenetic tinkering. For example, while the album version of I am has fairly straight-forward drumming, the decision to bring in a funky, hi-hat swing midway through the chorus granted the song its own unique place within the setlist that I’d previously overlooked. Findlay and Ward are the anchors for the group’s bad cop, bad cop routine, comprised of vocalist Eryx Ward and guitarist Reuben Jones who is, in reality, a grand warlock of miscellaneous gizmos and doodads. His arch alchemy of these dark arts alongside a perpetually distorting, ever contorting guitar is as playful as it is integral to curating the band’s sound.
As the performance began it was clear Eryx London’s brand of industrial punk is meditative and measured, yet constantly on the verge of going loco. With the flashy lighting system that had previously dominated the support acts being pulled, you are left simply with Eryx, who interweaves a concoction of breathy, haunting whispers and defiant, raspy screams teeming with anticipation before inexplicably The nuances of her performance are capped off with an all-enveloping Kubrick stare that’s as mesmerising as it is a cause to prompt one’s fight or flight response. When I say her stage presence has a Medusa-like quality, I promise I mean it entirely positively. It’s a sense of aesthetics unmatched by their contemporaries; clashing styles ever jostling for your attention.
Their set was made up almost entirely of the debut 2023 album Blagger, opening with a 9-minute retention of Black Snow (it’s for you), full of building tension, warbling synths and soundscapes straight out of the BBC’s defunct Radiophonic Workshop. While I prefer Broken and U don’t like your girlfriend, the title track Blagger is the best example of the band’s restrained ‘looping’ technique- think LCD Soundsystem or better yet, Remain in Light-era Talking Heads. Eryx London builds upon the dissonance of a simple rim click-kick drum combo and three-note bass sequence before subsuming hammer-ons, increasingly precise picking and a tom-dominated (tominated?) backbeat. Reuben ran wild throughout this song, using the neck of his guitar to archically wrangle his theremin as he exhaustively fiddled around with his extensive pedal collection.
My draw to Eryx London comes from this distinct sound, rather than the lyrical content of their songs, take for example a certain song about politicians that begins a ‘c’ and ends in a ‘t’.
I’ll compare… Cult to Paul McCartney’s Big Boys Bickering – despite being sonic worlds apart, each song attempts to convey political discontent that’s effectively opaque with a swelling finale to boot. The sentiment that politicians are ‘useless’, and ‘scum’ and ‘f**cking it up for everyone’ is timeless, sure, and this isn’t an issue exclusive to Eryx London, but songs like Cult and Wolves in Alcatraz’s Red Top Agenda, feel as though they are retreading old ground and picking low hanging fruit. The issue isn’t the sentiment, it is punk, or even that these songs are ‘bad’, they’re not, – there’s just so little to take away from them that they become harmless. Perhaps the most punk thing a band could do today is make a pro-political song… punkception. Perchance.
Last song for A was a hauntingly tender finale that truly put Eryx in the proverbial spotlight. With a lamenting performance at odds with a persona characterised by its depersonalised, stand-offishness. The band deserved every second of the encore, showcasing a new song Flags as a final victory lap; a distillation of the band’s philosophy and a great step forward. Each band I’ve written about today is in the process of writing or recording new material, so keep your eyes peeled; there’s plenty of music coming out of the Midlands for your listening pleasure.
I may have had to bunk off Eurovision this year, but, cap in hand, I don’t think I missed too much. The breadth of talent on showcase and the hefty turnout (which in my experience is characteristic of Duffy’s Bar), I’d say each band would do far better than our annual ‘nil points’, but I wouldn’t want to do a disservice to Leicester’s music scene by comparing it to Eurovision.
If you would like to share this review, please help us by using the share buttons below instead of a screen print – thanks!