Albany Down Bullingdon Arms Oxford 11-07-16
First up were local 4 piece Invisible Vegas who their website liked to americana rock which was an excellent description of their sound.
Great vocals from Alex Colman and the way his acoustic guitar melded with the electric guitar of Chris Chantler was superb.Chris played melodic lead at times with plenty of ad libbing and it just worked.
Their own original material stood up well and the cover of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary was a great choice and fitted in well and a band to look out for.
I was lucky enough to see Albany Down at their cd launch party for the quite magnificent The Outer Reach album and I still find it amazing that I had heard nothing from the band before the new opus was released.
For nearly 90 minutes they played a set brimming with confidence and and belief in their music with 10 of the 11 tracks aired from The Outer Reach.
Here is what they played with an encore of You'd Better Run added to it.
With a small crowd it must be difficult to muster everything you have every night but Albany Down pulled it off effortlessly as if the stage was in front of a crowd of thousand's.
Paul Muir on vocals has a voice built for the classic rock style leanings of the material and he is an engaging front man too with some witty between songs banter.
The rhythm team of Billy Dedman on bass and Donna Peters on drums are rock solid as can be and in some of the lengthier endings to some songs the groove they produce is not short of mesmerising with South Of The City being amazing.
On guitar Paul Turley is a real star too.Equally adept at riffing and soloing with plenty of slide work on South Of The City and he has some lengthy solo's all well thought out building to a crescendo.
The band start as they mean to go on with Feeding The Flame's riff groove and chorus all hitting the mark.The album has a real depth and just wonderful to hear it pulled off live with the different styles like the funky Supersonic Girl,the hard rock straight ahead The Drop with its big riff and bigger hook on the chorus and the stunning balladic Sing Me To Sleep which builds into an epic song from it's early acoustic beginnings to the huge guitar solo with Turley all over it.
The quality never dropped with my personal favourite Like A Bullet with another big riff and chorus sat mid set like a goliath and set closer Revolution shows the harder edge to their classic rock style.
Albany Down should and deserve to be the next big thing with an album and live show that demands to be seen.
Make sure you do.
Great vocals from Alex Colman and the way his acoustic guitar melded with the electric guitar of Chris Chantler was superb.Chris played melodic lead at times with plenty of ad libbing and it just worked.
Their own original material stood up well and the cover of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary was a great choice and fitted in well and a band to look out for.
I was lucky enough to see Albany Down at their cd launch party for the quite magnificent The Outer Reach album and I still find it amazing that I had heard nothing from the band before the new opus was released.
For nearly 90 minutes they played a set brimming with confidence and and belief in their music with 10 of the 11 tracks aired from The Outer Reach.
Here is what they played with an encore of You'd Better Run added to it.
With a small crowd it must be difficult to muster everything you have every night but Albany Down pulled it off effortlessly as if the stage was in front of a crowd of thousand's.
Paul Muir on vocals has a voice built for the classic rock style leanings of the material and he is an engaging front man too with some witty between songs banter.
The rhythm team of Billy Dedman on bass and Donna Peters on drums are rock solid as can be and in some of the lengthier endings to some songs the groove they produce is not short of mesmerising with South Of The City being amazing.
On guitar Paul Turley is a real star too.Equally adept at riffing and soloing with plenty of slide work on South Of The City and he has some lengthy solo's all well thought out building to a crescendo.
The band start as they mean to go on with Feeding The Flame's riff groove and chorus all hitting the mark.The album has a real depth and just wonderful to hear it pulled off live with the different styles like the funky Supersonic Girl,the hard rock straight ahead The Drop with its big riff and bigger hook on the chorus and the stunning balladic Sing Me To Sleep which builds into an epic song from it's early acoustic beginnings to the huge guitar solo with Turley all over it.
The quality never dropped with my personal favourite Like A Bullet with another big riff and chorus sat mid set like a goliath and set closer Revolution shows the harder edge to their classic rock style.
Albany Down should and deserve to be the next big thing with an album and live show that demands to be seen.
Make sure you do.
