Tantrum

John O'Gaunt, Market Street, Lancaster
25 August 2004

Reviewed by Reza Mills

The band starts around 9.00 and look quite uncomftable, crammed into a small space near the entrance of the pub. No one can even see the drummer! There are four band members here, Hannah Paget who plays keyboards, Luke Paget who plays drums, Jamie Walker on vocals, lead & Slide & Bass guitar and Chris Hunt who plays the same as the aforementioned Jamie.

One thing to notice is that they are all pretty young being in their teens, with the exception of Chris. They are all classically trained and self-taught which is impressive to say the least. The band I soon learn formed in April 2002 and have played gigs all around the North West from Windermere to Wigan, the latter of which they played a bikers' rally to 400 people.

Make no bones about it the type of music they play is the blues with touches of old school classic rock. Quite a surprising choice of music especially for a band so young. The normal impression of a typical blues band is men in their 50's howling away in a smoky bar, about how their woman's left them for another man. The John o' Gaunt usually hosts nights for this style of music as well as Jazz.

They play mostly covers, ranging ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix. And more Hendrix, and more, and then some. Man this band really loves its Hendrix! They must have done about 5 or 6 covers! Not a bad thing of course, it's Hendrix dammit! You gotta love the Hendrix! At one stage during Purple Haze, guitarist Chis (who is the Hendrix super-fan) starts playing behind his back and with his teeth! Pretty impressive stuff. Though thankfully in the interests of Health & Safety does not set fire to his guitar.

The band start off with the one and only original song called the Tantrum Shuffle which is more or less an average blues workout, technically good but nothing particularly outstanding. Then come the covers, starting with Stevie Ray Vaughan, the pace is pretty slow, which is no great shock as the Blues usually is.

It is only a couple of numbers in when Luke announces they are going to speed things up with - surprise, surprise - a HENDRIX cover. It is at this point that Jamie switches from guitar to bass and Chris from bass to guitar and from this moment on the gig really starts to come to life. This is mainly due to Chris being a more flamboyant and showy guitarist, whose metal influences in Metallica and Guns n' Roses really start to show. Whereas Jamie has his foot firmly planted in the blues and is more restrained and conservative in his approach though no less technically proficient.

The band is extremely tight as a unit and seems very well organized. In addition to the two lads at the front a shout out needs to go to keyboardist Hannah whose playing helps to inject a dose of melody into the proceedings with her very jazz influenced style in the vein of Oscar Peterson and Flip Philips.

Finally who could forget the unseen drummer (Hannah's brother) Luke. He is a vintage powerhouse behind the kit who can keep the beat, but who can also crash and smash with the best of em' (stylistic comparisons can be made with John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Keith Moon of The Who), especially during his rather impressive 10 minute drum solo, which sounded remarkably similar to the Zeppelin song Moby Dick. They finish the first set with a cover of a ballad by: I think you can guess.

The second set follows pretty much the same pattern with covers of ZZ Top's Gimme All your Lovin and Sharp Dressed Man and yes MORE Hendrix. The turnout for the gig is surprisingly good for a Wednesday night with a fair mix of young and older people which is quite unusual, particularly as you wouldn't think younger people would like this sort of music. But no they were up there boogying along with everyone else.

The band seem like quite a humble and down to earth collective and that really reflects in both their playing as well as in their choice of straight-forward, non-pretentious music. If you're expecting 20-minute feedback sessions and sonic youth / Pink Floyd style dynamics you've come to the wrong place. The band finish off with a cover of Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World. Which although not my favourite Young song, (What with those cheesy keyboards), is nonetheless an apt way to finish off the evening as it's a ‘get out your lighter' kind of a moment.

Overall I thought the band was a resounding success, they were technically excellent and any hitches in the equipment were dealt with very quickly and with a courteous ‘Sorry about the wait'. They were very professional. It also helped that they had very supportive friends and family at the front cheering them on, including some of the band members' dad (I can't remember who exactly), who doubled up as the manager, geeing up not only the band but also the audience as well. You could sense he had every confidence in his young protégées and that definitely helped their performance.

The audience response was also pretty respectful. With this sort of confidence the band could really go places in the blues scene and are hoping in fact to support top acts such as The Hamsters, Dr. Feelgood and The Peter Green Splinter Group. Having technical ability is one thing, but having self-belief is another and the band had that in spades judging by tonight's performance, which bodes well for their future.

Not to say that the evening didn't have its faults. For one their decision to mostly play covers. Although in one sense it is good to keep the audience engaged with songs they already know, on the other hand it suggests a lack of originality. A few more of their own songs would have helped to mix things up a bit. A live setting is often a good way to try out new material on an audience. The fault doesn't just lie there though, but is also in there not being much variety in the choice of covers that they play.

While one can applaud the band for not playing too obscure a cover, on the other hand a bigger selection would have been nice. Less Jimi (Hendrix) would have been a start. Nonetheless these are minor points that can soon be ironed out and in no way mar how technically awesome the band are. Next time they are playing around these parts, make sure you catch ‘em. Trust me it will be worth it.

People wanting to book the band for gigs or other information should contact them on 01524 770076.