Live Review - December 2nd - The Athelstan

Review by www.rockregeneration.co.uk
After their storming performance at the “Bandalism” gig at the O2 Academy in Bournemouth earlier this year, Empire Affair are building a solid following around the local music venues in Bournemouth and further a field with further gigs planned in London. The five piece band were who formerly known as “Echo” are tonight gracing the stage of their local public house the “Athlestan”. This is the bands last gig of 2011, rounding of what has been a great debut year with the release of their great EP reviewed here on Rock Regeneration.

The evening kicks of with two tracks from the EP, which really get the party started with lead vocalist Neil Tallent (who looks like he should be in a Franz Ferdinand tribute band) using his masses of energy encouraging everybody in the place dancing and singing along. The band included a couple of previously unheard new songs which for some strange reason have been temporary named using boys names “Fernando” and the outrageous “Techno Terry” both of which showed promise with the excellent twin guitar sound from Jack Woolston and Matt Park working to great effect.

The respectable sized crowd are treated a set littered with covers from Empire Affair’s favourite artists including a surprisingly great version of Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time” which was sang as a tribute for her 30th birthday, other highlights included a rousing version of Sow Patrol’s “Run”, and final song of the night “Kings of Leon “Use Somebody” which had virtually the whole of the pub singing at the tops of their voices along with the band. Playing covers in a pub to a drunken crowd is not easy and Empire Affair know what their home crowd wanted and delivered it in fine style, some of the cover versions may have sounded a little unrehearsed in places, but the important thing was that the band’s own songs such as the brilliant appropriately titled “December” and “Take Me Down” stood up well and shined through. It is clear that this band have the songs and ability to take things to the next level. 2012 could be an even better year with the Dorset Music Awards just around the corner. Could they been contenders? Only time will tell.

Visit the Empire Affair home page at www.empireaffair.co.uk 

My top 5 influential albums - Matt

Post by Matt

I had a change of job recently, and because of this I found myself listening to a lot more music while walking to and from work. In particular I have been going back and listening to albums that I haven't listened to in a while and rediscovered some gems from the time that I started playing guitar and I can hear certain aspects of my guitar playing style in this music, so I thought it would be a bit of fun to share some of the albums that most influenced my guitar playing, so here they are (in no real order)...

Pixies - Doolittle

The Pixies seems to be one of those bands that are mostly appreciated by musicians, even if they are not stunningly amazing musicians themselves. What I learnt from this album is that you don't have to be Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton to write a cool sounding prominent guitar part, and quite often the guitars on this album are slightly out of time and off key, and it really works. Just listen to 'Here Comes Your Man', a quirky, fun rock song with some great sounding guitar playing that is far from being musically perfect but nevertheless fantastic to listen to.

Key track: Here Comes Your Man

My Vitriol - Finelines

One of my favourite albums for so many reasons, it was just one of those albums that I picked up at the perfect time in my life for it. Many people have come to me at gigs and commented on the board of effects pedals that is usually sprawled across the stage in front of me, and its probably because of this album. In a kind of juxtaposition from what I said about the Pixies playing simple guitar parts and not needing lavish embellishments, My Vitriol use guitar effects pedals in such a way that is really intriguing to me, using echoes, pitch bends, sweeping tone shifts, and crazy flanges etc (I wont bore you with the extended list), they do it in a way that really compliments the song and creates almost a sonic soundscape.

Key track: Alphawaves/Always Your Way

Tool - 10,000 days
When I tell people that I like Tool usually they look surprised. For those that don't know, 

Tool is quite a dark rock band, although they are heavy in places, the listener is left with 

the impression that it's all justified in a way and rather than it being noise, what comes 

out is a well  calculated barrage of emotion (and not in a whiney 15 year old kind of way). 

Tool are possibly the most incredible musicians in rock today, their use of dynamics, timing 

and rythym is something that all musicians can learn from. While I appreciate that a 17 

minute song might not be ideal listening to some people, i can not speak anymore highly 

of getting a good pair of headphones, closing your eyes and listening to Wings For Marie

 (parts 1&2) and just let it wash over you. Failing this, listen to The Pot as loud as possible, 

a perfect example of how a dark rock song doesnt have to be moronnic shouting.
Key track: Wings for Marie (Parts 1&2) or The Pot 

Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream

SP are one of those ‘marmite’ bands, possibly because of Billy’s voice, but I love it, and this album has some absolute corkers on it that I could take a lot from in terms of guitar technique (this is where it gets slightly technical) when playing the rhythm guitar part Billy tends to play just the root note and the octave note, muting the 5^th which is a subtle but great way of making a chord sound edgier, without changing the pitch in any way, and similarly when the song gets louder he will also hit all the strings but mute the strings that he doesn’t want to ring out, adding a kind of ‘percussive’ aspect to his guitar sound. The intro guitar part to ‘Cherub Rock’ is a great example of these techniques and remains one of my favourite things to play on guitar.

Key track : Cherub Rock

Hundred Reasons - Ideas above our station

This album came out at a time when American pop punk was rife with band like sum41, green day, the offspring was bothering the rock charts. Hundred Reasons came along and (in my honest opinion) saved English rock from being taken over by Americans, sure they had a few little similarities, but they made a fantastic sound. In particular I love that they have two guitars and only in very rare moments do they follow the formula of ‘I play chords and you play notes in the chord’, the songs were pretty complex when you break them down but simple when listened as a whole. As well as these subtle, yet intriguing, guitar parts the vocals from Colin Doran were fierce and yet crystal clear and hold similarities to a then Frank Turner fronted Million Dead. I can honestly say that there is not a weak song on this album and it has aged well, nearly 10 years on.

Key track : If I could

 

 Visit the Empire Affair home page at www.empireaffair.co.uk