"Great, three bands, two of which contain the remnants of the great Kyuss, and one of which is first up, playing the shamefully empty LVC. "
"Great, three bands, two of which contain the remnants of the great Kyuss, and one of which is first up, playing the shamefully empty LVC. "
Vic Du Monte’s Idiot Prayer, Hulk, Brant Bjork & The Brothers – LVC, Leiden 21/04/05
Great, three bands, two of which contain the remnants of the great Kyuss, and one of which is first up, playing the shamefully empty LVC. Vic Du Monte’s set was seemingly hampered by some piss poor house sound engineering and the odd broken string, but there was something about the band that kept taking all of this in their stride. After all, they were armed with the songs off the Idiot Prayer’s new album "Prey for the City"; an endearing, supercharged collection of bar room rockers and laments that greatly cheered the staff up at the Incendiary shed. In fact, it is these songs, given no help from the sound, that actually shine through the venue’s empty gloom. There is a charm and an innocence about them that is utterly endearing. Especially the rendition of "Company Man". I might as well stick my neck out, this band have got something, something that maybe needs to be worked out and stretched a little, but, as I always maintain, you really know if an act is any good when faced with adversity, and they’re good. You’ll be sorry you missed them.
Off we go to the bar, (when are they going to stop using the tokens? They always confuse me greatly. At least on this evening you could drink your beer out of a real glass, and that’s not always the case here), and there we stayed through Hulk, who upped the ante with a defeaning assault that developed and increased my nascent claustrophobia to breaking point. I hid, cowering in the lobby, venturing forth into the hall only for the essential maintenance of my toilet. Whilst there, great wafts of death and destruction bellowed forth from the stage. People seemed to like it, so I’ll restrict my views to this charitable observation.
The crowd had appreciably thickened by the time Brant Bjork led his brothers on stage.
The crowd were in thrall to the band, who sounded like what I imagine a Quick Silver Messenger Service gig would have sounded like in ’66/67, (but I’m guessing here as I’m a tad too young to remember them, despite my already venerable age, children). Long drawn out RnB tinged acid-soaked guitar work-outs, and a clever instrumental interplay was just the ticket for the dark cavernous LVC; laid back, head nodding music always works extremely well in here, especially when played so well. Two encores, a farewell salutation along the lines of "its been real nice" and they were off, leaving a very good vibe about the place.
Good night all round, methinks.