Adrian Baldwin
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Observations
  • Reviews
  • Blog
  • The Blog Library
  • My 70s Things
  • Contact Me
  • Links

Karma To Burn (& Desert Storm) at the Craufurd Arms

7/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​In the follow up to the Desert Storm post from yesterday, this one is about the gig headliners, Karma To Burn (K2B). The three-piece band, originating from West Virginia, USA, delivers heavy, stoner rock/metal with southern rock accents. 

Kind of like the hard rock world’s spin on classical music, K2B’s set was entirely instrumental, no vocals/singing at all.

I was already familiar with the band’s music (I listened to “Almost Heathen” in the car on the way to The Craufurd), but I didn’t expect the gig to be quite the way it was.

Having never been to a K2B show before, I was anticipating darkness, lots of red/blue light and dry ice to give the experience a real intensity, a bit like I experienced when seeing Samsara Blues Experiment (when the lack of other sensory type input gave the music a greater power/resonance).

But, my expectations were completely wrong. In fact, the fellas turned up and played without a light show, dry ice, branded back drops or any other glitz/glamour.

William Mecum, guitarist, was the most unassuming, restrained, unanimated frontman that I have ever seen in charge of a band. He had a microphone, but he kept away from it, almost like he thought it was going to bite him.

Mecum had a good act of coming up to the microphone, looking like he wanted to say something, observing the audience hanging on in anticipation and then, with a wry smile, moving away having said nothing. Comedic, well timed/executed and well appreciated by his audience. When he did step up and say something, he was pretty much monosyllabic and/or indecipherable.

At one point of vocal clarity, he joked about playing a love song – how the heck can you do that with no lyrics thought I. The tune played after this announcement was in no way different in style to the rest of the set. My kind of love song then – hard, no nonsense, uncompromising rock.

Love songs clearly don’t involve any sloppy stuff in K2B’s world.

Whilst Mecum was right of stage, Eric von Cutter, on bass, was to the left and Evan Devine in the middle on drums. Both were as unassuming as Mecum. Devine looked like Jesus if you ask me.

After the gig I had a conversation with Eric and later with Will and both were as laid back off stage and they were on, no show off/showbiz distance or petulance about them at all. I paraphrase but when mentioning the lack of “show” the response “We just want to play man, if the rifts don’t do it for you then tough, that’s all you’re getting!”. And I couldn’t argue with that.

The set list for the gig was as follows:
  1. 39
  2. 14
  3. 1
  4. 61
  5. 34
  6. 5
  7. 19
  8. 32
  9. 62
  10. 9
  11. 57
  12. 20
I know that list reads like some kind of Chinese takeaway food order but I kid you not, that’s it. And why not? If the tracks don’t have lyrics, why worry about giving them names either? The numbers are economical and once again evidence K2B’s disinterest in anything other than the music.

For the band, the music (and the joy of playing it) is everything. In fact, so much so that there’s no other “performance” at all. And rather than be boring or disappointing, it was a slightly odd but surprisingly refreshing experience. 

The only shame was that the gig wasn’t the sell out that I expected it to be. I bought my ticket on the same day the venue announced it; on the night of Tuesday 26th June, I could have bought one (as could many others) on the door. Maybe it was just too hot and a “school night” because K2B and Desert Storm are class acts that deserve packed gigs. Still on the bright side, it was an intimate event that allowed those present to be close to and engage with the bands during and after the show.

I’ll be frank, I really liked this band and I’d like to see it again. Not sure when I’ll get the chance again though. I’ll have to defer to the Craufurd on this matter.

My thanks to K2B for a great gig and to The Craufurd Arms for booking the band. It pleases me no end that this little venue in down town Wolverton can draw in well-known, interesting and decent bands from around the world.

And on that subject, my next visits to the venue are on the 24th and 25th of August. I’ll be seeing Anvil (the long established, influential Canadian metal band) and then Electric Six (from the USA).

Maybe I’ll see you there.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

Follow @AdrianBaldwin71
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Adrian Baldwin

    Blogging for more than a decade

    Archives

    December 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    May 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.