Witches
The Cellar, Oxford
Witches, Nodz, Baby Gravy, Hearts In Pencil
The Cellar,
Having barely had time to wipe clean the festival mud and wring themselves dry following their performance at this year’s sodden Cornbury, Witches are once again working their magic live.
The cramped (read cosy) confines of the Cellar are an altogether different proposition to the festival circuit. Much has changed since then – largely the distinct metamorphosis of the band from melodic-rock act with sinister undertones to one with more emphasis on the ‘rawk’ element.
Tonight tracks such as early single ‘Chaos Of A Friday Night’ also benefit from the flawless trumpetering from Polish member Benek, who seems to have grown massively in confidence with every gig, his touch adding another dimension to the tunes. The tempestuous ‘Now You Have To Leave’ follows and is a brooding, sinister masterpiece building with a trumpet-led crescendo while ‘There’s A Darkness’, a cinematic sparse affair, is tonight’s potential lighter-waving moment.
Other pinnacles include new song ‘Time Bomb’, which features a chorus punctuated with glockenspiel chimes like a children’s bedtime musical mobile and an outstanding version of ‘Sleep Like The Witch’ which revels in melancholy, guitarist Martin’s resonant guitar riffs leaving an impression. Before we get too teary-eyed though, frontman Dave has a rock star moment, perilously scaling the speaker stack as the band tear into the rumbustious ‘Stammer’, shaking a set or maracas more wildly than the guy in ‘that deodorant’ advert.
Earlier the much-hyped indefatigable quartet Baby Gravy…a frenetic, turbo-charged multi-layered rich musical feast live up to their great reputation as an act to keep an eye out for. The band mash up
Evening openers, the gritty, bottom-of-the-ashtray indie-rock quartet Hearts In Pencil throw a curve-ball with their impressive opening number, a grungey affair which nods more towards Nirvana than the faux Babyshambles accusations levelled at them.
It’s not long before frontman Lozzo is yelp his way through their remaining tracks though in the style of Doherty spliced with the
Post-Witches they thought it was all over….and it kind of was, but for last-minute addition Nodz, who play to a severely depleted audience. That the Gallic guitar band conjure up images of the Big Apple as opposed to Parisien cafes or the Eiffel tower may be down to the fact their reference points appear to come from the former city’s garage rock scene that brought us as The Strokes as opposed to anything home-grown.
Their music is saturated in the sassy, effortlessly cool music of the genre, guided along by a underlying disco beats.
A shame then, that it’s only the few die-hard sleep-deprived audience members who get to witness them. Worth losing sleep over!
Joby Mullens
