Devil's Gate Music
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The Depo, Plymouth
Thursday 25th May 2023
Review and photos – Rob Wilkins
So many gigs in the last two years seem to have been rearranged after cancellation due to the Covid crisis that it made a change to attend one cancelled for a different reason, the original date in Reef’s tour being cancelled due to a head injury to Jack Bessant. He is now fully recovered and the date was quickly rearranged, thankfully with original support, Mother Vulture still on the bill.
I have seen The Bristol-based youngsters three times live now, and can honestly say they simply get better and better. It has become a favourite sport! Stand amongst people that have never seen them play before. Watch their bemusement as four style-dressed young men take to the stage ( a VERY small stage on this occasion), start with a gentle intro, and give no idea of what is about to happen. Then, in a blur of movement and activity, all hell breaks loose as vocalist Georgi Valentine hits notes that shatter your beer glass, guitarist Brodie Maguire leaps and spins with his gorgeous Gretsch guitar, bassist Christ Simpson runs on the spot and drummer Matt West somehow keeps the chaos in order.
I don’t think I have seen ANY other band that put so much into their live show. Off the stage as much as on it, in the crowd, vaulting the barriers, sprawling backward over those same barriers, windmilling prostrate on the floor, all the while ripping out riffs that make it about far more than the excess of the performance.
The material matches the insanity with some superbly crafted songs such as “Honey”, “Rabbit Hole” and “Mr. Jones” bringing the bar crowd further and further forward. The reaction as the last notes die away? Generally “What the fuck was that?”, “Who are they again?”, “Where can I see them next?”. Mother Vulture – a band going places. Be part of the journey!
Now some bands might find that hard to follow, but Reef, from just up the M5, have been around far too long (well over 30 years incredibly) to be overawed and come out all guns blazing with “Shoot Me Your Ace”.
Gary Stringer is the consummate performer at the front. He moves with a sassy spring in his step and the growled vocals haven’t diminished one percent in all those years. It is a small and intimate venue and he is immediately in the faces of the front row, all twinkling eyes and flirting. Behind him, the flowing locks and beard of Jack Bessant, at first quietly rooted in place but as the gig progresses more and more active, thump out the bass lines, supported by drummer Luke Bullen. The line up is completed by the silky guitar skills of Amy Newton and the sound is perfect.
The crowd now is tightly squashed and up for a party. The band obliges. It quickly becomes one of those nights that small, full venues can provide where band and audience start to feed off each other and the energy rises and rises.
The front row is almost exclusively female, whether by accident or design, which gives Stringer an inexhaustible number of targets for his attention, which they lap up. When you have a set that spans all the way back to 1993, you can pick and choose, but the crowd pleasers remain with “Naked” early in the set, quickly followed by “Consideration”. “Place Your Hands”, sending the crowd into ecstasy, and “Come Back Brighter” keeping that energy flowing. New songs such as the immense “Refugee” and “Best of Me” showcase that the songwriting hasn’t lost out over the years and slot seamlessly into the set.
By the time we get to the encores myself and the missus have moved back to let others have a turn at the front and get a different taste of the energy now filling the room. It is infectious and not a soul isn’t moving and dancing until the very last note dies and the quartet takes well-deserved applause.
Two bands at very different points in their careers but both providing the very best of entertainment and fun. More please!
