Mother Corona plays the Craufurd Arms I went to a gig last Wednesday night (17th June) at the Craufurd Arms in Wolverton, Milton Keynes. On the undercard was “Mother Corona” and headlining “Samsara Blues Experiment”. Each band gets its own write up.
Mother Corona (MC) has featured on my site before - I saw the Didcot-based-three-piece for the first time in February and wrote about that gig too.
As a result of that Oxford event, my buddy Mark Hughes ordered the band’s CD releases “Reburn” and “Out of the Dust” – he subsequently loaned them to me and, because both were/are good albums, I recently set about buying them myself. And that insight is relevant because the process of procurement meant that I became aware of last Wednesday’s gig.
The outing presented the perfect opportunity to return Mark’s CDs and catch up over burgers, beers and heavy metal – tickets were duly purchased via the Craufurd’s website.
Mark and I arrived at the Arms at around 8pm; I saw the MC trio at the corner of the bar and strolled up to ask when the guys were due to take to the stage. With a decidedly bemused look, the fellas said “8:30pm” – I realised why I got the bemused look moments later when I saw the notices taped along the back of the bar. Doh, how not-very-observant of me!
I digress for a moment; the band members are an interesting looking lot – the guitarist (lovely chap though I am sure he is) is heavily tattooed with shaved head and a full, pointy beard looks like a dangerous, volatile white supremacist sort (think Edward Norton, AHX but with much, much more ink); the singer (and drummer) - Dave - with the trademark ‘metal’ long hair has this thing he does with crossing and uncrossing his eyes that makes him look a little mad (think Steve Buscemi/Mr Deeds/Crazy Eyes); and then, jarringly, the bass player Rob is completely normal in appearance (in fact he could work in my office and fit in just fine).
With regards to the band’s music – it is distorted, grungy/sludgy/stoner heavy metal. The guys are capable musicians and the band is tight. Lesser skilled bands would need an extra guitarist to cover the range of sounds that MC produces. Lee (the guitarist) plays a Gibson Les Paul with serious aplomb, so much so that at one point I leant across to Mark and mentioned that watching his fingers racing around the fretboard made me want to grab a guitar and have a go myself.
The Craufurd’s gig hall was fairly lightly populated by punters but then I guess it was a school night. There were probably about 30 people in total, which is no reflection at all on the quality of the bands and their music.
Mother Corona took the stage at the allotted time and played a set that consisted of the following six tunes.
During Sunscope, Dave’s right drumstick snapped and he carried on playing with the half that stayed in his hand. Bearing in mind that he had to use both feet, both hands and sing at the same time, he did a great job of holding it all together whilst making allowances for his right hand’s reduced reach.
The venue’s settings for the microphones weren’t quite right, the instruments rather drowned out the vocals. Perhaps my experience was influenced by my position in the hall; Samsara Blues Experiment (SBE) was similarly affected.
The penultimate number - Stone Cold Universe - is my favourite of all the MC songs, you can find it on YouTube if you’re tempted to listen.
Despite having procured the band’s CD back catalogue, the other four songs were new to me (not featured on either album).
At the end of the set, I got chatting to Rob Glen the band’s bass player. I had exchanged emails with him during the process of ordering the CDs mentioned earlier. He advised me that I had purchased the last copy the band had of “Out of Ashes” - I’ll consider that a lucky result.
After the gig, Rob was good enough to email on the set-list, which was helpful in writing this post.
By the way, if you fancy sampling MC’s wares, YouTube is a good place to start. If you want to buy the music, you need to visit Bandcamp, or get to a gig. Even though "Out of the Dust" is sold-out, you can still buy the songs from the album via a download. On that release, my favourite track is entitled “Nuclear Winter”.
https://mothercorona.bandcamp.com/album/reburn
Mother Corona is a band that I’ll happily see again, I am now following the guys on Facebook and will pay particular attention to gigs in a commutable distance from home or work.
Samsara Blues Experiment at the Craufurd Arms
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Mother Corona (MC) has featured on my site before - I saw the Didcot-based-three-piece for the first time in February and wrote about that gig too.
As a result of that Oxford event, my buddy Mark Hughes ordered the band’s CD releases “Reburn” and “Out of the Dust” – he subsequently loaned them to me and, because both were/are good albums, I recently set about buying them myself. And that insight is relevant because the process of procurement meant that I became aware of last Wednesday’s gig.
The outing presented the perfect opportunity to return Mark’s CDs and catch up over burgers, beers and heavy metal – tickets were duly purchased via the Craufurd’s website.
Mark and I arrived at the Arms at around 8pm; I saw the MC trio at the corner of the bar and strolled up to ask when the guys were due to take to the stage. With a decidedly bemused look, the fellas said “8:30pm” – I realised why I got the bemused look moments later when I saw the notices taped along the back of the bar. Doh, how not-very-observant of me!
I digress for a moment; the band members are an interesting looking lot – the guitarist (lovely chap though I am sure he is) is heavily tattooed with shaved head and a full, pointy beard looks like a dangerous, volatile white supremacist sort (think Edward Norton, AHX but with much, much more ink); the singer (and drummer) - Dave - with the trademark ‘metal’ long hair has this thing he does with crossing and uncrossing his eyes that makes him look a little mad (think Steve Buscemi/Mr Deeds/Crazy Eyes); and then, jarringly, the bass player Rob is completely normal in appearance (in fact he could work in my office and fit in just fine).
With regards to the band’s music – it is distorted, grungy/sludgy/stoner heavy metal. The guys are capable musicians and the band is tight. Lesser skilled bands would need an extra guitarist to cover the range of sounds that MC produces. Lee (the guitarist) plays a Gibson Les Paul with serious aplomb, so much so that at one point I leant across to Mark and mentioned that watching his fingers racing around the fretboard made me want to grab a guitar and have a go myself.
The Craufurd’s gig hall was fairly lightly populated by punters but then I guess it was a school night. There were probably about 30 people in total, which is no reflection at all on the quality of the bands and their music.
Mother Corona took the stage at the allotted time and played a set that consisted of the following six tunes.
- Sunscope
- Hollow Empire
- My Diablo
- Back to Hell
- Stone Cold Universe
- Turn It Off
During Sunscope, Dave’s right drumstick snapped and he carried on playing with the half that stayed in his hand. Bearing in mind that he had to use both feet, both hands and sing at the same time, he did a great job of holding it all together whilst making allowances for his right hand’s reduced reach.
The venue’s settings for the microphones weren’t quite right, the instruments rather drowned out the vocals. Perhaps my experience was influenced by my position in the hall; Samsara Blues Experiment (SBE) was similarly affected.
The penultimate number - Stone Cold Universe - is my favourite of all the MC songs, you can find it on YouTube if you’re tempted to listen.
Despite having procured the band’s CD back catalogue, the other four songs were new to me (not featured on either album).
At the end of the set, I got chatting to Rob Glen the band’s bass player. I had exchanged emails with him during the process of ordering the CDs mentioned earlier. He advised me that I had purchased the last copy the band had of “Out of Ashes” - I’ll consider that a lucky result.
After the gig, Rob was good enough to email on the set-list, which was helpful in writing this post.
By the way, if you fancy sampling MC’s wares, YouTube is a good place to start. If you want to buy the music, you need to visit Bandcamp, or get to a gig. Even though "Out of the Dust" is sold-out, you can still buy the songs from the album via a download. On that release, my favourite track is entitled “Nuclear Winter”.
https://mothercorona.bandcamp.com/album/reburn
Mother Corona is a band that I’ll happily see again, I am now following the guys on Facebook and will pay particular attention to gigs in a commutable distance from home or work.
Samsara Blues Experiment at the Craufurd Arms
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