Page 55 - Black Velvet Issue 87

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WE ARE THE OCEAN / TALL SHIPS
/ ALLUSONDRUGS – BIRMINGHAM
ASYLUM, 09.11.15
Allusondrugs are an interesting concept.
While outwardly they may look to be fronted
by a Kurt Cobain doppelganger (at least in
tonight’s lighting) and sound like they’re influ-
enced by the Seattle scene to an extent, if you
take a closer listen you’ll discover they’re a
very intelligent and thought-provoking bunch.
You may think their band name means they
like taking drugs, but according to the band,
it’s a metaphor for any trivial rubbish that dis-
tracts the population from paying attention to
important matters that are happening in the
world such as people dying of disease in un-
derdeveloped countries and greedy so-
ciopaths at the top of the mountain ‘feasting on
our souls’. Wow. So yes, there’s more to Allu-
sondrugs than meets the eye. We realise this
during the song ‘Sister’ which frontman Jason
Moules says is about solidarity between our
race. Jason is mesmerising as he sings – he’s
not the best singer in the world, but kind of like
Kurt Cobain, he can win you with his perform-
ance and passion. He entrances you while he
twists and dances like he’s on his own planet.
‘Sunset Yellow’ is apparently about Irn Bru
while set ender, ‘Cherry Pie’ is more of a fuzzy
grunge distortion. It wouldn’t be surprising if Al-
lusondrugs became as successful as Nirvana.
They’ve definitely got something worth having.
Tall Ships are mellower – for the most part.
They’re a band that is heavily focused on ex-
perimenting with sounds and music. They
open with ‘T=0’ which begins with a concoction
of instruments in the front seat, while the vo-
cals come in almost 2 minutes later. As the set
continues the sound smoothens. ‘Will To Life’
is like a flight into the clouds. There’s an indie
meets post-rock vibe and an atmospheric air.
They’re a talented bunch, although their songs
don’t grab us as much as We Are The Ocean’s
do.
We Are The Ocean’s set has us scratching
our heads… wondering why they are not play-
ing huge stadiums to tens of thousands of
fans. They really have perfect rock songs that
are played to perfection. Tonight the venue is
not sold out and despite the fact that the band
have been around for eight years or so, it still
feels like they’re one of the UK’s best kept se-
crets. Frontman Liam Cromby tells the crowd
that they’re going to play ‘What It Feels Like’ –
an old song that was requested when they
asked fans on social media which songs
they’d like to hear. ‘Runaway’ from the ‘Go
Now And Live’ album is about an ex-girlfriend.
Liam explains that something told him to finish
with her. Tom Whittaker’s drums sound like a
beating heartbeat. Songs from the new album
‘ARK’ including ‘Holy Fire’, ‘Do It Together’ and
the title track are played, the latter showing the
band to be stretching themselves creatively.
They also include their cover of London Gram-
mar’s ‘Hey Now’. The encore sees Liam play-
ing an acoustic guitar solo. You can really hear
the talent ooze out in this one. He and the
band have definitely come a long way from the
band they began as. Ending with ‘Good For
You’, tonight’s show really was good for us –
and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll
make sure you’re at the next We Are The
Ocean show!
YYYYY
SBV
Liam Cromby (We Are The Ocean) Photo
By Shari Black Velvet
CONCERTS