Post by neilcrud on Feb 16, 2007 22:18:01 GMT
To-Mera
Central Station, Wrexham
14/2/07
Central Station, Wrexham
14/2/07
(review n pic by MWJ)
Ahhh, Valentines Day. That annual reminder of the fundamental, nay polar, differences between the sexes. On one side, the need for reassurance through grand purchase or gesture that they are not taken for granted, on the other side, men. Naturally, I’ve always been highly cynical about the festivities, some commercial creation for saddoes who can’t express themselves for the rest of the year, but that may be somewhat influenced by the fact that due to my (dropped from a height as a) baby-face good looks I have never been wading through cards to get to the front door of a morning. In fact I’d only had one that I recall, while in school, from 3 girls who all had boyfriends anyway but took pity on me. Still, that was one for the bank so to speak… I digress. So a gig that appealed to me and my lady friend seemed an excellently timed non-committal compromise. The eventual exchange of gifts amounting to a sandwich from me and ½ an hour with a Hungarian vixen from her seemed very favourable and could make me look at the occasion in a whole new positive light in the future.
To-mera contain a meeting of some unlikely elements, no doubt contributing to their quite diverse mix in their metal music. I’d seen the frankly gorgeous and wonderfully monikered vocalist Julie Kiss co-fronting Hungarian progressive metallers Without Face some years back at Earache Records Xmas party gig in Nottingham, and bass player Lee Barrett had done his time and grime in crust legends Extreme Noise Terror. The couple of tracks I’d heard indicated a leaning more to the former but was still interesting and as ever not wanting to miss these relatively rare visits to North Wales from bands from elsewhere.
Miss them we almost did though, by order. We were aware it was an early start (open at 6) but had confused the “under 18” tag for these regular Rebellion Rocks night with an “all ages” show. Basically, we were too old to be let in, my lady might have blagged it but I can only pass for even 30 on a moonless night to some one with sunglasses. Looking in the opposite direction. So we went off to the 1-5 to rethink, giving the impromptu opportunity to have some food, hence the romantic sandwich. While you could fully understand their reasoning on the restrictions we determined it would be worth one more blagging effort to get in, and after leading with a combo of “all this way…” and “we’d emailed to clarify but you never replied…” the trump card of “but it’s for valentines day…” won over the promoter (“well. Seeing as you’re a couple…” of what though?), who was a woman and therefore understood the importance. Whereas if I’d tried that with the bouncers they’d have laughed me out of town. With a complimentary kicking.
The timing was perfect as we only had a couple of songs of the school metal disco to feel horribly uncomfortable in before the band came on. Seriously, at twice the age of the majority there, I felt it wasn’t safe to even look around never mind discuss the merits of paedo grind. Anyway, once the band started that providing something more suitable to focus on. Must have been a bit disconcerting for them too as the well busy dance floor, far busier than for any of the conventional gigs I’ve been to there, thinned considerably to more familiar levels in the face of real but not famous music, though numbers did stay up front to show some appreciation.
With a core of precise, driving metal, they at times upped tempo to almost latter day Slayer riffing, at others dropped off to atmospheric pounding doom of the likes of My Dying Bride. This was all topped off with the classical, crystal, vocal tones, sometimes whispered but mostly powerfully rising over the heavy backing. To be fair, she had sounded better previously but with factors like the local mix or coming off the back of a few dates already it was still a striking and definitive element to their performance. Definitely filling the sound alongside the bass when the single guitarist flew off on solo tangents (or went on a wireless walk to the bogs!), they had a keyboardist who was also at the centre of some quirky, almost lounge jazz breaks they threw in on occasion. In rapid contrast to the thundering stuff this was a little reminiscent of “disco volante” era Mr Bungle, showed them pushing the progressive envelope as intended. A tiny bonus for me was a bass break with added distortion that just made smile me in a Napalm Death “Scum” intro way, the way to this man’s heart. They definitely crammed a lot in, mainly from their new “Transcendence” album, but then it was over and done with in about 30 odd minutes, by half 8! Don’t know whether this was a set tailored for the night or what they were told to fit in with, but plain odd for conventional gig goers.
No way was I going to hang about to enjoy the rest of the evening with my young friends but we then had the added bonus of meeting the delectable Julie at the merchandise where I renewed acquaintance with her, obviously having an advantage of lack of serious competition from the spotty herberts. Fortunately I had previously agreed with my number one lady that it would be ok to drool over her as long as she was drooled over later, but you didn’t really need to know that did you? Still, honesty would be my only recommendation for the path to true love. Just ask my ex-wife.