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Review: Sons of Liberty/Kit Trigg, Electric Banana, Weston-super-Mare
Mostly playing host to tribute acts, Weston’s Electric Banana is a little gem of a rock venue tucked away on a side street beneath a giant nightclub. In something of a throwback to the 1980s, they serve drinks in glass bottles here, trusting us not to hurl the empties at one another or the musicians on stage. There’s little chance of that happening tonight as this is a near-hometown gig by Bristol’s very own southern rockers Sons of Liberty at the end of the latest leg of their lengthy 10th anniversary tour. Friends and family (including a couple of small children) are here to cheer them on.
They’ve never been afraid of giving breaks to talented young support acts and tonight it’s Kit Trigg’s turn. Young master Trigg looks barely old enough to be served at the bar, but as soon as he plugs in his Flying V for aptly titled opener Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of it becomes apparent that he’s an outstanding guitarist, though it takes a couple of songs for his voice to warm up. His hard rockin’ trio are at their best on songs like Snake in the Grass, which makes great use of their three-part vocals. Just as your correspondent is beginning to think that Trigg might bear comparison with the young Gary Moore, he asks “Are there any Fleetwood Mac fans in the house? Are there any Peter Green fans in the house?” Cue: a splendid cover of Oh Well, written by Moore’s primary influence. Later he drops in an abbreviated cover of CCR’s Proud Mary. There’s quite a glut of young rock bands looking back to the sixties at the moment, but Trigg’s a cut above the genre’s more slavish copyists and clearly has a bright future ahead of him if he stays the course.
is needed now More than ever
Sons of Liberty are living the dream that so many local bands have failed to achieve. They started out as a hobby act playing covers in pubs, but soon began to write their own songs. Eventually all the covers were squeezed out and a new sense of professionalism took hold. Three EPs and three albums on, these veterans of the Bristol rock scene have become firmly established on the national festival circuit and shared stages with the likes of Skindred, The Darkness, FM and Molly Hatchet. The line-up’s been fairly stable, though they’re now onto their third frontman: Russ (son of late Onslaught singer Steve) Grimmett, who’s proven both a natural fit and a very able caretaker of the family business.
They open with latest single Time to Fly from new album The Detail is in the Devil, featuring the first of many great guitar solos tonight by Fred Hale. It’s evident that all that time on the road has paid dividends in honing Sons of Liberty into a super-tight unit, with bassist Mark Thomas in lockstep with stick-twirling drummer Steve Byrne to form the band’s solid backbone, though this never gets in the way of the serious business of having fun. Grimmett is sporting a pair of the band’s branded shades (they don’t stint on the merch) which he complains are “making my eyes sweat” and even clambers aboard the bar to sing one song, accompanied by the aforementioned nippers. He also talks about the experience of being directed in a music video by scary former cage fighter Kris Barras (“We did exactly what we were told”). At one point a gargantuan brassiere finds its way on stage and winds up being worn as an ear-warmer by guitarist Andy Muse.
But it’s only when they dig back into the catalogue for such crowd favourites as Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief and Up Shit Creek that the band’s USP as southern rockers really shines through. Much of their more recent stuff fits snugly into heavy rock/metal territory, which is, of course, no bad thing when it’s of the calibre of Turn This Tide. It would be a shame, however, if they were to lose sight of their roots.
There are occasional forays into serious lyrical territory with the likes of Walk with You, which addresses that popular Harry Potter character Mental Elf. But you’re never too far from a party song with these guys. They eventually bid farewell with arguably their best number: Ruby Starr, an aptly foot-stomping tribute to the late Black Oak Arkansas singer, which successfully melds their many influences and leaves us howling for more.
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2024
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