Music / heavy rock
Review: The Struts, SWX
Kiwi Kelsy Karter (note to self – don’t use that acronym) received a rather warm welcome from a boisterous SWX crowd, the room already filling despite the early doors. Her set got the crowd moving and she worked the crowd mercilessly, harvesting a raucous response. Backed by three “lovely boys”, Karter’s set was a pleasing mixture of blues and rock, at times snotty, but mostly mixing up classic rock tropes with bluesy vamps.
The band worked hard: throwing shapes, playing with swagger and they served the material well. A solid rhythm section devoid of flash but playing with youthful panache, topped off with solid guitar. They particularly kicked ass on the opening tune Catch Me if You Can, a belting little ear worm and easily the catchiest number in the set. They wore their glitter well too…
is needed now More than ever
Karter’s biggest asset is assuredly her voice – when she really let’s rip there’s a massive Janis Joplin attack, really noticeable during an enormous cover of Can’t Help Falling in Love and her own God Knows I’ve Tried. It’s also refreshing to report that despite her obvious range, Karter chose to sing rather than showboat, using her voice in service of the songs rather than grandstanding.
Her own material showed promise, she’d opened with the strongest number and closed with (probably) her most well know song Harry, a scruffier affair live, that went down well. The set was well balanced for mood and tempo too, resisting the temptation to cram in a typical wham, bam, thank you mam support set. Actually, Harry was probably the match of Catch Me if You Can for catchiness, so a smart move bookending the set with the two most immediate tunes.
Karter certainly wasn’t shy about engaging with the audience either. She described the genesis of box fresh new tune English Leather during a long layover during the flight to the UK, as well as sharing other stories and tales. Said song describing her, ahem, fondness for long haired young English boys, which drew a massive response from the fellas in the crowd. Hilariously the loudest response coming from aspirational balding, paunchy middle aged men. Ironically she ended actually dedicating the tune to a fellow Kiwi.
On the basis of tonight’s set Karter and her band have plenty of potential to gain traction with a mainstream audience, but the mainstream is a fast changing place to ply your trade and the audience fickle. Could she cross over to a rock crowd? Well, yeah, the potential’s there…certainly anyone finding Halestrom a bit too metal would enjoy Karter. The band wouldn’t be out of place at The Ramblin’ Man Fair either, but Download would be a hell of a stretch.
IF they choose to pursue the rock scene then a few more judicious support slots, beefing up the song writing and the patience to work the scene will pay off. But beware: it’s something that needs to be earned, they won’t get far with attention seeking social media stunts, which may pay off with instant attention but can end up a millstone. Who wants their top search engine result to be a $300 worldwide web commotion?
The Struts are Luke Spiller, lead vocals & piano; Addo Slack, guitar & vocals; Jed Elliott, bass & vocals and Gethin Davies, drums. They’ve released two LPs to date: Everybody Wants and Young & Dangerous, two recordings jam-packed with glorious glam rock tunes that manage to sound both ridiculously retro and yet ludicrously contemporary. And tunes that demonstrate massive pop nous.
The Struts have also been attracting a fair amount of press comment, along with plenty of commentary from the social media community. Plenty of comments & commentary about their influences; their appearance; their abilities; their decision to focus on the US; their (alleged) lack of originality; their girlfriends, and, for all we know, their ability to solve quadratic equations. They may not have divided opinion as much as fellow travellers Greta Van Fleet (see here and here) but they’ve certainly become a Marmite band for many rockers, however, as tonight’s sell-out crowd shows, they’ve crossed over massively.
But we’re not concerned with that, what we want to know is can the band cut it live? Because after all, the estimable Neil Fallon summed up the business of rock in the 21st century with these wise words: “If you’re gonna do it, do it live on stage, or don’t do it at all”
Based on tonight’s performance, The Struts can do it live on stage. And they can do it fuckin well. This performance was a beast: an exuberant feel-good, weapons grade barrage of exceedingly catchy songs played with heart, soul and passion by the ton. A night of glam rock shock & awe. A night featuring a set that’s only two albums old and yet already sounds like a greatest hits set.
Local lad Spiller was clearly destined to front a band like The Struts. Equal parts Mercury, Tyler, Stewart and Jagger (and just a pair of suspenders away from Frankenfurter to be honest) he was tireless in his performance. A constant blur of motion he bestrode the stage, flirted with the crowd and flounced like it was 1974, and remarkably, nailed every vocal despite travelling the equivalent of 12 miles (estimate) during the set.
He was all about audience participation, spending the evening rousing the crowd to new heights of participation and stimulation. Not that the crowd needed any encouragement whatsoever, but he led singalongs, presided over singing competitions and during the band’s cover of Dancing in the Dark, brought Emily up on stage from the crowd for her very own Courtney Cox moment.
Spiller looked the part too, there were at least two costume changes (the freakishly tall demographic once again surrounded your reviewer, obscuring sight lines for a large portion of the show). His costumes apparently to blame for the lack of “indoor fireworks and confetti guns… because we spunked the budget away on my frocks”. He looked insanely excellent and the “frocks” fitted the material and performance to a tee.
Of course Spiller would look a bit of a numpty on stage without a decent band, and the years of hard touring have certainly paid off. The rest of the band are finely honed and supremely well drilled yet managed to make it look easy. Permanently grinning they played every cut like a set closer, exemplified by the balls out opener Primadonna Like Me. Elliott and Davies were commandingly powerful yet versatile, imbuing Dirty Sexy Money with a salacious disco backbeat, whilst Body Talks swung like a motherfucker in the verses and pummelled in the choruses.
Slack was sharp all night, riffing with abandon and on fire during the solos: short, sharp solos that didn’t outstay their welcome. He stretched out too – there was a mid-set bluesy, funky work out for the band (to allow a costume change for Spiller) and he provided subtle accompaniment for Spiller during a laid back Mary Go Round. The solos in Dancing in the Dark were incongruous, sounding more like the Edge than Little Steven or the Boss, they lifted the tune away from familiarity. Meanwhile it would be churlish not to mention Spiller’s piano work, adding colour & contrast to One Night Only and Ashes.
Arguably the constant crowd pleasing dragged the set down somewhat during Dancing in the Dark, the elongated dancing and orchestrated singing losing the band some momentum. But then as a young friend commented “You’re just a grumpy old bloke who’s been to too many gigs”. And she was right actually, no other bugger thought the set lost momentum – they were way to busy revelling in the rock n roll vaudeville, singing their hearts out and dancing like it was the last show on Earth. Put Your Money on Me (with its infectious Motown backbeat) and the swinging, pounding Where Did She Go brought the set to a climax, the crowd singing themselves hoarse.
Encore never in doubt, Ashes built from the piano into a valedictory mini-epic. Could Have Been Me finished the night, a song that will only have fulfilled its destiny when it’s been sung from the stage at Wembley Stadium. The show ended with no confetti, no pyro, no lasers, just the theme tune to Only Fools and Horses, greeted with as much gusto as the band’s tunes.
This is a band going places without the support of mainstream media and building an enviable fan base simply by recording & releasing catchy (incredibly catchy), well crafted, escapist glam rock songs and then performing them with passion and an evident delight in simply entertaining their audience.
They bring to mind the heyday of charting rock bands in the seventies, the days when Sweet, Queen, Slade, T Rex, Mott, Lizzy, the Faces, the Stones et al rocked hard and yet dominated Top of the Pops – capturing rock and pop fans alike. Therein lies the USP of The Struts: harnessing the past to both attract the people who lived it, and freshening it up so it sounds original for the young ‘uns. Want a distraction form the clusterfuck that is 2019? Grab the tunes and catch ‘em before you have to pay through the nose for an arena ticket.
The Struts: SWX: Friday, 22 February 2019
All pix by Shona Cutt
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