Black Stereo, Ezra V & Oblong
Friday saw three bands making their Llanelli debuts. First up were bi-lingual post-punk outfit, Oblong. This three-piece band contained two former members of Llanelli indie legends, The Hepburns. Including the audience, we actually had a total of six former Hepburns present that night. The band like to keep their songs local and opened with the track, Lemon Tree (although as vocalist, Clem, told us, other pubs are available) and also had a song about a mystery-shrouded deadzone deep in troserch woods outside Llangennech.
Their lyrics alternated between being sung in English and Welsh and the boys were very passionate about keeping the Welsh language relevant with their songs, without forcing the issue; if they felt more comfortable singing in Welsh, they would and if English fitted better, they would sing in English. The band had a good following and enjoyed their time on stage so I am looking forward to more gigs from them in the coming months.
Next up were instrumental pro-rock band, Ezra V from Bridgend. I do not know what most people think of when they hear “instrumental prog-rock” but there were some worried faces in the crowd. Thankfully, our fears were unfounded with the band playing a blistering set which impressed everyone present. Before they started, I imagined instrumental prog-rock to be quite dour but their opening track was anything but, the set starting with an upbeat, funky track that got landlord, Kris, dancing from the off.
The gig was a guitar player’s heaven, reminiscent of an old Joe Satriani or Steve Vai album but every member of the band played their part with some great bass riffs and very interesting time signature changes. Normally, I would avoid ten-minute instrumental tracks but there was so much going on in each song that nothing dragged and the set seemed to fly by in no time. Even though the band have only been going for six months, these complicated tracks were played to near perfection. Most of the crowd had come to see one of the two Llanelli based bands but Ezra V received a great reaction with many people telling me that they were the stand out band of the night.
Last band on were Black Stereo, featuring members of Llanelli bands, Stand Up and Shout and The Echo. What stood out for me was the harmonies of vocalists, Lee Shears and Elliot Lewis. I thought that they may break into Kansas’ Carry On My Wayward Son at any moment as a number of their tracks featured a similar vocal harmony start and there was a definite Americana feel to their songs. Again, this band featured some great musicianship and well-crafted songs. One place where Black Stereo had an advantage over the previous two bands was in the catchiness of their songs, I still had their tunes running through my head when I was in bed that night. This was another band who had not been together long but were faultless in their execution.
Although post-punk, instrumental prog-rock and Americana probably should not fit well together, everyone at the gig agreed that this was a great night of music and with some new faces in the crowd, hopefully this night has invigorated the original live music scene in Llanelli and Turk-Rock’s comeback will be complete.
