PLANET ROCK ROADSTARS | LIVE REVIEW
The Globe, Cardiff, Fri 18 Nov
On a cold November night, The Globe is about to get hot with blues-rock guitar shredding that will ignite the audience. The third night of The Planet Rock Roadstars 16-night tour has arrived in the capital. The Roadstars are young guns, bands that cause heads to turn wherever they play: two British bands, Aaron Keylock and Federal Charm, and from Nashville, SIMO.
The order the bands play changes every night. Tonight, Aaron Keylock [pictured] was opening the show; this young band is getting lots of attention, with a debut album Against The Grain out in January. The vocals were not the best and the guitar playing loud, fast and furious, Sabbath colliding with Johnny Winter. Opening with a shorter set perhaps didn’t show the varied side of this young man – the slide guitar was good and the lead breaks solid but there were no flashing and sparks.
Mancunian band Federal Charm duly charmed their way through an accomplished set of blues-inspired rock, full of confidence, style and control. The twin guitars of Paul Bowe and Nick Bowden are sometimes in competition but always in harmony, and completing this tech quartet are bassist LD Morawski and drummer Danny Rigg, bringing tonal shape and control for the frontmen. Federal Charm’s set was full of attitude and at times an arrogant swagger; the set may have been brief but crammed with numbers off the current album Across The Divide, including great single Silhouette.
Main act SIMO are a trio fusing music from every genre into a fluid psychedelic whirlpool. Keeping up with virtuoso guitarist JD Simo are bassist Elad Shapiro and Adam Abrashoff on drums, who provided rhythms that explode allowing for effervescent guitar fireworks. With no setlist, this was a hothouse jam full of control, innovation and excitement; slide met fingerpicking and the two-handed playing of the fretboard was mesmerising.
Defining SIMO is like trying to capture mercury in your fingers, you just think one band and the music changes and it is totally different as jazz collides with Hendrix and the Allmans are threaded into the mix. Live, they’re as exciting as studio album Let Love Show The Way promises, and the gasps from fellow audience members suggested they agreed.
Closing with the only cover of the set, their unique interpretation of With A Little Help From My Friends, SIMO certainly made new friends tonight – ones who’ll be spreading the message to their friends as they tell them what a night they have missed.
words and photos LIZ AIKEN