What do you
get when you cross blues legend Gary Moore and his partner in crime BB King?
What you get is The Black Hands, a local blues/rock band from Sheffield. The
band was the first act on at sound clash hosted by Plug and they certainly did
get the crowd going. There was a disappointing amount of people there for their
set because you could have seen that with a full house and the same energy that
the band put in they could have blown the place apart with these guitar riffs.
Harmonica and natural born blues singer, Andy Gannon, is the front man of the
band and definitely live up to the standard that a blues singer should have. He
tore through songs better than Brian Johnson on steroids, including “Don’t
steal my blues” and “The devils way. As they surged through each of their songs
it was clear to me that one of lead guitarist “Daniel Riley’s” idols had to be
the legend that is angus young as most of his solos had that rhythm and crunchy
tone that angus always has, everyone he played sounded like his fingers had
electric running through them. As the band got about half way through their set
people who were over by the bar had slowly started to come and watch the band
and once their they didn’t move a muscle, the lads played their last few songs
only to be egged on to play more afterwards. These 6 lads gave the audience
something that no other band that night managed to give which was the integrity
to go and play some old blues which is what their generation and mine are
missing!!
When
Resonate came on stage I thought it was two guys coming on to set up the next
bands gear but then as one of them sat at the drum kit and the other put his
guitar on I realised they were the next band. Resonate was in fact a two man
band, one which was on the drums tapping away at the hi-hat and the other armed
with an Epiphone ES355 the guitar that rock n’ roll legend chuck berry plays. I
wish I could have said the same for him but no their music was far from rock n’
roll as the first thing that came through the PA system was some sort of heavy
sub-bass track that the drummer was in control of. The guitarist was more like
the new generation of the arctic monkeys the same sounding voice and if the
sub-bass weren’t in there the same sounding songs. The mood of the place was
great and many people was cheering this guy on and he was definitely giving it
his all pulling out some solos here and there. In between songs the guys
announced that they had a new EP out and they handing out CD’s at the end which
listening to sounded great and certainly offered me something fresh that I
hadn’t ever heard before. I think what would help these two is if they brought
into the band a synth player and let the drummer pump some beats in on the drum
kit instead of the simulator that he controlled do all the work. I would
definitely recommend that you go and see these two as they have something
completely new to offer and I guarantee you to be entertained.
Up next on
the stage at plug were the highly anticipated Little Crazy who in fact were a
little crazy as at first a women walked out wearing a see-through netted top
and leather pants. I was expecting something like you would used to find in the
Limit back in the 80’s but instead got a more rock Joan Jett feel. These guys
were certainly the “fluff” up band for the 48K’s and in fact had the entire
crowd’s attention. I wasn’t too keen on them after hearing the first song but
they actually grew on me and now I have a real soft spot for them as they have
brought back what is so hard to bring back and that is old rock. This women was
in fact front “girl” Sofire who had the voice of a true rocker, she had that
edge that is difficult to find now with a girl as mostly girls want to be the
next Katy Perry or Rhianna but not this one. From watching her Sofia she lived
up to the expectation that I had previously heard of her. These guys meant business and started as they
meant to go on by playing some good hits of theirs and both bassist and
guitarist let loose sweat and blood in everything they played and you could see
them in years to come playing arenas round the world. This band gave something
from the moment that they started playing to when they joined the crowd to
watch and that was the determination to put on a good rock show which they were
there to do and I can say with no regret that they did that!
The headline
act at Sound clash was a 5 piece Brit-pop band called the 48k’s, now days every
new band out there is setting out to be the next arctic monkeys or pulp. These
guys take it to the next level and make themselves their own. While waiting for
the group to come on stage I noticed that one their crew came on and tied a
rubber chicken to the mic stand, maybe this was for the humour or for the luck.
For these guys they needed luck because all the other bands had really set the
level of performance and it was high. At last the band emerged onto the stage
and kicked into their first track, their sound was unique and was like a
mixture of the monkeys crossed with the Beatles, they had the harmonies spot on
and the great crunch that Brit-pop needs. About half way through the set the
rubber chicken was (ab)used when lead guitarist Steve kicked the chicken and
swung it round his mic stand, I was still thinking what was the point of the
chicken... Along with Steve was Kato on rhythm guitar, Ryan on vocals, Karl on
drums and Adam on bass guitar. Now when I said about this band having some
Beatles elements in them well this certainly fits Adam as was playing the old
style violin bass that the famous Paul McCartney played so it is quite possible
that he was an influence on this band. This was the first time I saw these guys
and I would love to see them perform again some time, they gave the crowd some
good entertainment and great laughs (you never saw Ryan without a pint in his
hands!).
