Saturday 2 March 2013

AUDREY HORNE, BROKEN CHORDS Live The Garage, London 27.02.13 (Gig Review)

AUDREY HORNE
BROKEN CHORDS

THE GARAGE, LONDON  27th FEBRUARY



BROKEN CHORDS
Tonight’s only support band at Upstairs At The Garage were a 3 piece called The Broken Chords, hailing from Hertfordshire and Essex, playing a set of self described rock 'n' roll.
As is often the case for support bands, there wasn’t many people here, about 30 or so mainly hanging around the bar, leaving the first half of the venue completely empty. However this did not stop the lads from throwing everything they had at the crowd, with singer Joe Finnigan playing energetically and acting as if he was headlining the night. The band come across as well rehearsed and pretty tight.
Musically however, there were some catchy riffs and there’s no denying Joe has power in his voice, sounding at times a bit like Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother, but overall they didn’t particularly engage my interests.
They will be on the cover mount CD of the new Rock Sound magazine if you wish to check them out, or check their links below for updates and music.

AUDREY HORNE
Noticeably, as soon as the band left the stage, a few people ran straight up to the front of the stage to take their positions for the headliners tonight, Audrey Horne. I hadn’t seen this band before, nor had really heard much of their stuff before, so I didn’t know what to expect, all I knew was that they were from Norway.
The venue was now looking healthier with more people arriving, the lights dim and the band’s intro hits while the smoke machine fills the room, the band take to the stage kicking straight into opening track ‘Redemption Blues’, which is also their latest music video (watch below), instantly making an impact with their loud hard rock and attitude whilst smiling and quite obviously enjoying themselves.
After a few songs, lead singer, Toschie, announces the next song is about a lady, to which bassist Espen Lien points out he’s introducing the wrong song, and that’s the next one. After they played ‘Cards With The Devil’ Espen says that NOW you can introduce ‘There Goes A Lady’ to which Toschie replies ‘It’s good to have my teacher, mother and father rolled into one person with me today…‘ showing that the band don’t take themselves too seriously, but they mean business when it comes to the music.
I thought the vocals sounded familiar throughout the set, after a while it dawned on me that the singer doesn’t sound unlike R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe (which is a good thing).
 As the set progresses, it becomes obvious that this is party music, with a ‘feel good’ atmosphere to match, with the vocalist constantly posing for pictures for all photographers, and even high five-ing one of them.
After playing slow and down beat number ‘The King Is Dead’, Toschie says that now that he has made the audience depressed, we need cheering up and kicks straight into ‘This Ends Here’, with it’s big chorus instantly making everyone jump up and down, head bang, and smile. The vocalist also Jumps down into the audience to sing to them, taking someone’s camera phone in the process and filming himself singing, making one fan very happy!
Overall a great set with lots of energy, awesome riffs with some that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Judas Priest album, most noticeably on ‘Straight Into Your Grave’ and closing track ‘Blaze Of Ashes’. Lots of crowd participation when instructed to clap along show that the band can hold an audience well.
They announced that they will be playing at London’s Camden Underworld on May 2nd, so check them out!
Most of the tracks played tonight were from new album ‘Youngblood’, which is out now!

BROKEN CHORDS


AUDREY HORNE





PROMO VIDEO 


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