On what turned out to be the greasiest evening of the whole year about fifty people squeezed themselves into a room barely big enough to contain my ego, and so hot I almost sweated myself into a gas. The large selection of wifebeaters being worn lent the whole venue a kind of neo-Miami Vice sleaze a cut above the analy obsessive fascination with americana doing the rounds with the garden gang. So we smoked, drunk and made merry our sound track for the occasion, courtesy of some nice lads from Peterbrough, I think, collectively known as Vow.
What first struck me, almost literally, was the sound, it was so solid. At first I attributed this to some perverse spin off of the acoustics but after hearing the other band I can only conclude that it was specific to their music, their style I don't entirely know, whatever, it was nice. The music itself is as always, a confused issue. It is a little too easy to pigeon hole a sound as tit bits of this and that, of course influence is a contributory factor, but to describe it purely in terms of tends to leave behind any unique qualities. In this case we have three guys, bass, drums and guitar/singer. a fairly standard set up given new life with a nice balance of straight up rock trio driven melodies, delicately layered riffs, smooth talking, charismatic lyrics, and some good sounds. All served with an energy and tightness which go along way to reinstating the fundamental beauty of something energetic and tight.
What separates Vows tunes from other guitar sounds is the style. Throughout the songs there is a common thread of subtly and a more considered approach to composition combined with some imagination. Consequently the tunes trips you up, surprise you. Most of the time this only registers as a subliminal jarring, but the over all effect keeps the set from dragging. It's like the colour black, you give it to Jackson Pollark he paints a couple of square feet of canvas with it, you give it to Mick Jagger he goes and paints a door, you give it to these guys they kind of swirl it around a bit. Although the sound wasn't anything out of the ordinary, the usual range of distorted and clean guitars, punctuated with flecks of chorus and such like, they got themselves something distinctive. A step up from most guitar bands around at the moment and a pleasant change from the tide of pub rock that has been drowning us for so long.
