Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
May 21
HOPE RISES!
When: 20 May 2018
Where: CCA
Support: Boy Azooga
The Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (often referred to the slightly less of a mouthful Rolling Blackouts CF) may have a name that does not dance off the tongue but their music certainly makes your feet want to dance. It is classic twangy indie rock delivered with energy and panache. And not only can they write infectious tunes but they also deliver on the lyrical front too – the great lead track from their 2017 EP French Press (my favourite song from the last year) alerted Brits to this.
The Melbourne quintet have so far released two EPs and their debut album, Hope Downs (on Sub-Pop), will arrive in June – on the basis of some tracks from it tonight (‘An Air Conditioned Man’, ‘Talking Straight’, ‘Mainland’) it will be well worth waiting for. Whilst the line-up of three guitars plus bass and drums might not bee unusual the fact that all three guitarists (Fran Keaney, Tom Russo and Joe White) share lead vocal duties is and it gives an interesting variety to their sound (the set-up, if not the music, reminds me a bit of the excellent Decoration Day era Drive-By Truckers). Their singing is very strong tonight and several of the songs include instrumental breaks where their guitar chops come to the fore, especially good on ‘French Press’ and ‘An Air Conditioned Man’. Whist the guitarists dominate the front of the stage the backroom engine boys (Joe Russo on bass and Marcel Tussie on drums) provide relentless, flawless rhythm. The set was full of great songs, ‘Julie’s Room’, ‘Sick Bug’, ‘Colours Run’, ‘Wide Eyes’, and they played one if their early songs which has not been recorded (‘Angela’?) was as good and melodic as any they played tonight.
They tell us a couple of times that they are very happy to be playing in Glasgow as some of their favourite bands have come from here (without naming names). And the general age of the audience also probably confirmed that they too had noticed an affinity with the music of their youth – although there was a spattering of younger people too. I had been looking forward to this gig all year and was not disappointed – if anything live they are even better than on record. Great band, great music, great fun!
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