|
AN EVENING WITH Saturday 6th February, 2010 @ Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, ENGLAND.
|
|
There’s been an increased buzz surrounding Herefordshire band The Misers just lately, they must be doing something right having just reached number one in both the Americana and Country charts on Myspace. And tonight at Huntingdon Hall, it was their show that promised to be something a little different and featured two sets from the band across the night. It began with a stripped down acoustic duo performance followed by the full electrified five piece band and was billed as “An Evening with The Misers”. Opening with a personal favourite “Back In Your Arms”, the first part of the evening was so relaxed and surprisingly informal, it wasn’t long before the good size crowd were getting nicely involved and there was plenty of witty chitchat and two-way banter between songs. Frontman Neil Ivison switched between aggression and passion with ease as he used his acoustic guitar to the full, while Adam Barry with the distinctive sounds of Rhodes and Hammond keyboards added character and atmosphere. The band had made an excellent choice of venues to play live, the hall was a Methodist chapel built in 1773 and is a Grade II listed building, today there’s a stage in place of the pulpit and the wonderful acoustics made a natural springboard for the sound to project. They played several songs from their album interspersed with some well fitting covers of songs from their early influences, which included “When Will I Be Loved” sang in true Everly Brothers close-harmony style, their rendition of “All The Young Dudes” (Mott The Hoople) that went down a storm and they actually finished with Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”. The duo left us for a well deserved break and the audience headed for the bar. |
 |
|
The acoustic set had served quite nicely as a warm up for the full band, kind of Hor d’Oeuvres before the Entrée, and our appetites were now primed. As the band came onto the stage, you realised that this venue provides an intimate experience and leaves nowhere for the performers to hide, and you could see this on the faces of some of the band as they took their places. The full band really is the proper Miser experience and from the opening chords of “Call Me Anytime” you felt the difference – it was time to rock. And there was plenty of that with a cover of Free’s “Travelling In Style”, more than half of the songs off the “Amplified Life Stories” album and also the inclusion of two newly written songs. “I Got A Woman” and “Don't Let The Old Town Die” were showcased tonight and went down well, both songs being built around catchy, singable choruses. The vocals of Ivison provide an obvious focal point, as they have a gritty, soulful earthiness mixed with melodic integrity that suits the music perfectly, and they didn’t disappoint live. Not everything went totally to plan and the odd bummed chord, missed queue and periodically muffled Hammond was easily forgivable and just went to remind you these guys are human (and have only been together for a relatively short time). But a million times more spectacular was during the last song and then properly into the encore, the sight and smell of Barry’s Hammond organ almost bursting into flames and with smoke pouring into the audience. And it didn’t stop them for a second – this was genuine rock ‘n roll man. As the band left the stage for the final time (and some bloke hovered nervously with a fire extinguisher), you could hear by the shouts and cheers for ‘more’ from those all around, that they'd gone down extremely well and are definitely doing something right. Dave Yates
|
