On the 2nd December I saw The Atomic Bitchwax” (TAB) at the Craufurd Arms in Wolverton, Milton Keynes. TAB headlined the gig and “Desert Storm” was one of the bands on the undercard. A separate review, published on 10th December, addressed Desert Storm’s performance (for completeness why not read it too); it has clearly taken me a while to get around to finishing this follow on post.

Prior to the outing, I’ll admit that I hadn’t come across TAB before so didn’t know what I was going to be exposed to.

My question to my buddy, Hughesy, who had alerted me to the gig that very morning was “I have never heard of Atomic Bitchwax - am I in for a treat?”

Some verbatim comment follows “Whaaaaat??? I thought I would have bored you about them at some point. Yes, they are awesome.”

A fine recommendation then – I was going to have a good night.

In between Desert Storm (DS) and TAB, a band called “Champions of Euthansia” (CofE) took to the stage and played a half hour set that, if I am frank, was largely forgetable. One thing of interest about this act though was that it only featured two musicians. The singer/guitarist/bass player and the drummer.

I was interested to understand how the guitar could emulate the bass as well and so got chatting to Chris White from DS. He advised that a device called a splitter was involved that took the guitar signal and dropped it an octave to create the bass sound. One guitar and a box of tricks created two instruments. Cool stuff although the bass lines can only follow the guitar.

CofE left the state at 9:15 and The Atomic Bitchwax (and what a great moniker for a band, there must be an interesting story around how the name was dreamed up) stepped up at 9:30. The band is a three piece from the States and plays stoner, sludgy type metal but with prog/psych-rock influences and occasional funky elements - the bass player (Chris Kosnick) and guitarist (Finn Ryan) share singing duties.    

Chris Kosnick (who has an old school, Francis Rossi kind of look about him) is a great bass player; I watched, with something approaching awe, his fingers racing around the length of his Fender’s fret board. Finn Ryan, with his long curly, sandy coloured hair, reminded me a little of the lion from the "Wizard of Oz", which in an odd way was appropriate because the music the guys produced certainly cast a spell over me.   

The band played a number of great tunes but being unschooled in the back catalogue, I am afraid that I can’t relay what the set list was, though the music had energy, speed and variation.

What I can share was that the set was thoroughly enjoyable (so much so that I bought the band’s latest CD “Graviton” at the gig to listen to some more on the way home).

The guys played though to 10:30pm, did an encore and were well received by the audience. I particularly like the fact that the band appeared to be enjoying the gig as much as the punters. Though TAB is considered a super-group and plays in some huge venues around the world, it was clearly quite at home in a small venue in a small town on an innocuous Wednesday night.

So having been exposed to the band and its music, I can confirm that Hughesy’s positioning statement (as shared earlier) was/is spot on. TAB is indeed an awesome band and if you have never heard anything by the group, I recommend that you make an effort to track down a tune or two.

By way of a further endorsement, since the gig, I have ordered and received the album “The Local Fuzz”, it’s a one track, multi movement, 42 minute wonder. "TAB4" has now been ordered too.

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Over lunch today with Mrs Baldwin and the in-laws, I was asked if I’d heard about Lemmy’s death. To that point in the day, the answer was “no” and to be honest I would have preferred not to have heard the news then either because my face (and mood for that matter) just dropped - I was gutted that one of my heroes was gone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24806076

Though the gathered family are not fans of heavy metal, all were immediately subjected to “Till the End” – and out of respect to Lemmy, it was played a bit too loudly too.

Tributes from people that actually knew Ian Kilmister, as well as the glitterati of the music business, have been published all over the news and social media sites but I couldn’t let the passing of the great man go by without a mention on my site as well.

I have written about Lemmy and Motorhead numerous times, though my last post now feels particularly poignant (to save me repeating myself, you can read it by following the link below).     
    
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/bad-magic-and-poor-omens

Over all the years of seeing Motorhead it never ceased to amaze me that Lemmy was the same age/school year as my dad. It always amused me to think about how my old man would have coped if asked to front one of the best heavy metal/rock’n’roll bands of all time.

And maybe it’s that process of associating Lemmy with my father that makes his demise feel all the more personal and depressing.

From a final personal perspective, I’d like thank Lemmy for adding brightness, colour and plenty of noise to my life.

​And death for that matter because in due course “The Ace of Spades” will play me out when my time comes to take a box ride into the flames.

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​At this time of year it’s completely acceptable to wear dodgy sweaters, there is no shame in putting on a few extra pounds around one’s middle and it’s normal to listen to/sing along with/secretly enjoy festive pop music.

And on that very subject, I thought I’d post a piece about my new favourite Christmas CD. Arguably there’s no better time because it’s only a week or thereabouts until the big day.

I’ll admit that this is not the first occasion I have written about a Christmas album. In fact it appears that there may be a trend developing - every two years the topic completes another orbit.

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/the-theme-tunes-to-christmas 2011

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/christmas-compilation-humbuggery 2013

Regular readers will know that my musical preferences put heavy metal and punk music way ahead of anything even vaguely pop orientated. Until now, Christmas has meant completely abandoning my musical principles - subjecting my ears to the annual dose of Wham, Cliff Richard and Aled Jones is a bit like getting a vaccination booster (I am then protected for the rest of the year).

But today I discovered that heavy metal and Christmas tunes are not diametrically opposed. I can report that it is possible to combine one’s love of mosh music with one’s desire to feel a bit festive.   

​“We wish you a metal xmas and a head-banging new year”, a sixteen song compilation from Armoury Records featuring the metal genre’s leading lights, is the missing link that I feel compelled to promote to you all. I have included a picture to prove that I am not making this up. Check out the track and the artists listings (each track is performed by a veritable super group).

Lemmy on “Run Rudolph Run” is superb and “Silent Night” with its deep throat, growling vocals is a game changer.

The CD, well it’s brilliant, if you like your music heavy, I urge you to buy it now or edit your Christmas list and re-email it to your nearest and dearest.

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I went to a gig at The Craufurd Arms in Wolverton, Milton Keynes last Wednesday night (2nd December). The outing was rather impromptu because I only found out the event was taking place that morning. My buddy “Hughesy” alerted me because he’d been on the Facebook page of Desert Storm where a notice about the impending show had been posted.

Hughesy subsequently pinged me an email, tinged with regret that he was going to miss out; I was able to respond that there was a bright side because I could probably make it - a ticket was duly purchased via the venue’s website.

​As an aside though, that did leave me with a dilemma because the only clothing I had was the suit I was wearing at the office, which wouldn’t cut it at a heavy metal concert.  The solution was a quick trip out at lunchtime to get some alternative duds.

On the undercard for the evening: Desert Storm (DS), The Champions of Euthansia and headliners, The Atomic Bitchwax (TAB). I’ll break my write up into two articles, that way you get to read something whilst I am still working on the other piece.

I have posted about Desert Storm a few times this year, in fact Wednesday’s gig was the third time I have seen the band in 2015. To save repeating myself, why not read the previous posts by clicking on the links below (I’ll benefit from a few more page hits too).

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/eating-drinking-and-rocking-on-the-cowley-road

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/desert-storm-and-some-other-noisy-bastards

Though DS was first up on the running order, it was this band that was the draw to the gig for me because I hadn’t come across the other acts before.

When Desert Storm took to the stage at 8:00pm, it was immediately evident that the guys were down a man. Bass player, Chris Benoist was absent and guitarist Ryan Cole had the four-string instead.

I found out later that Desert Storm had been approached directly by the venue and booked at the last minute.  Having been able to accommodate the request, the downsides for the band were that the short notice caused an issue for the bass player, the ability to promote the outing effectively and draw in more fans was curtailed and the place in the running order was lower than the band deserved. But I am sure that some new fans were won. Hopefully some money was earnt too.

​It impressed me to learn that the band has musicians that are capable of picking up different instruments and filling in for one another - surely that must take some planning and have an impact on rehearsing? It also impressed me that the guys were still tight and the complex sound was spot on. I imagine that the set list had to be carefully selected to take an absent guitar into account but, and this is praise indeed, if I hadn’t seen DS a few times before, I wouldn’t have known that the band wasn’t meant to be a four piece. I am familiar with the back catalogue and I didn’t notice holes in any of the tunes either.

The following seven tracks were played (and I state this with absolute confidence, because vocalist, Matt Ryan, passed me the band’s A4, marker-pen-scribbled set list when it was no longer required).      

• Outlander
• Astral Planes
• Signals (I think this was a new tune)
• Pocketwatch (my favourite tune of the set)
• Night Bus Blues
• Shadow of an Eagle
• The Jackal

Like the last time I saw DS at the Craufurd, it was a shame when the set was done because I would have liked to have enjoyed some more.

​Afterwards, I got chatting to the Cole brothers and Chris White. The guys are sociable and conversational and they even remembered that I had posted articles from previous outings - which was kind of cool for me. Ryan was being self-critical of his bass playing, he reported that his hands were cramping up and that he dropped the pick a few times. I reassured him that from my punter’s perspective, he had done a heroic job. Chris, the guitarist, had stepped up to the plate too and had seamlessly managed the rhythm and the twiddly stuff on his own.

All in all Desert Storm are nice guys, good musicians and they play some fine music too - I genuinely rate this band and if you listen to stoner metal, I would recommend that you buy a CD…

…or go here for a trial listen: http://desertstorm.bandcamp.com/.

But for the best experience of all, find a gig to go.

And do it soon because I suspect that in the not too distant future these guys will be playing in the largest venues and charging significant entrance fees - and you will have missed the chance to enjoy something  altogether more rewarding.

In November I wrote about a Megadeth concert; the differences between the O2 Academy and The Craufurd Arms are marked, but the ability to get close to the bands and engage with the members actually makes a gig at a smaller, more intimate venue (like the Craufurd) a  better experience in so many ways. And whilst I came away from the Megadeth gig feeling tired and slightly disappointed, I came away from The Craufurd Arms feeling energised and upbeat and looking forward to the next Desert Storm gig.  

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