THE BELLRAYS | LIVE REVIEW
The Moon Club, Cardiff, Sun 24 Apr
“TURN THE MUSIC OFF!”
Bellrays frontwoman, Lisa Kekaula, is itching to get busy and the Moon’s hapless sound tech is standing between her and an hour of jet-engine-force rock‘n’roll. Snapping to attention, the tech kills the soft-rock blaring from the PA and the Bellrays explode into a set of the most attention-grabbing, raw, soulful and knock-you-to-your-knees-powerful garage rock to which you will ever treat your ears. Kekaula’s vocals blast through the noise generated by her bandmates and give the Bellrays a unique quality that none of their peers can match.
Kekaula’s husband, Bob Vennum, lays down some utterly filthy riffs and the rhythm section is as good as any you could ever hope to have hammering on your eardrums in a club the size of the Moon, but it is the vocal majesty of Kekaula herself that makes this band such a special proposition. Tunes like On Top, from 2011’s Black Lightning, get the crowd shaking their hips, banging their heads and dropping their jaws all at once – they’re sexy, aggressive and entirely riveting.
Before the main event, the Graveyard Johnnys provide a dynamite set of rowdy rockabilly, which goes down well with the packed-out crowd, still reeling from the swaggering bomb-blast of blues pumped out by the magnificent Johnny Cage And The Voodoogroove, all snake hips and leather trousers. As much a visual spectacle as a musical treat, they’re the stand out act amongst the support bands (lamentable pub rockers The D Teez, completing the lineup but offering little by way of competition; their only notable act on the night being to run over their set time).
But tonight is all about The Bellrays. It’s a rare treat for a small club in Cardiff to draw in a show like this and the fired-up crowd do not let the opportunity pass without taking to the dancefloor and expending as much energy as you could wish for on a Sunday night.
words and photos HUGH RUSSELL