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The Underground
Plymouth
Saturday 21st September 2024
Review and photos – Rob Wilkins
I have watched and reviewed gigs in some small rock bars in my time, but Plymouth Underground, in the Mutley area of Plymouth popular with students, has to take the award for the smallest!
Arriving at the basement venue, the stage is so full of gear that it is hard to see how support band Austin Gold are going to find room to play with two keyboard setups and a drum kit taking up the majority of the tiny performance space.
However, that concern is quickly put to rest as bassist Lee Churchill, keyboard player Adam Leon, and drummer James Pepper keep to the sides and shadows to allow vocalist/guitarist David James Smith to control the space perfectly.
A good-sized crowd quickly warms to their melodic and classic rock and Smith himself brings charisma as well as no mean guitar skills to the hot and sweaty cave of a venue. Some of the highlights of the set are, for me, “The Wire Defines” from the new album due to be released in just a month, the ballad “Home ain’t Home” with an atmospheric keyboard intro, the searing guitar solo that lit up “Mountain” far more than the meager lighting and the utterly anthemic “Never End” that got a superb reaction and showed just how talented at both songwriting and performance Austin Gold are.
Both crowd and band end the set dripping with sweat and the role of “warm up” has been well and truly delivered in every way!
I saw The Karma Effect relatively recently at Firevolt Festival and at the time commented that when they took the stage it was a case of men following the boys of the previous bands such was the leap in class.
Removing Austin Gold’s keys from the stage has left a foot or two of stage space but still leaves Jamie Bull limboing under his keyboards to get in place and drummer Ash Powell is marooned behind his kit with no way of leaving once in place. Unfortunately, the lighting is still no better and illuminates nothing above the waist so although I get a few pics I decide to just enjoy a great gig without worrying too much about photographic quality!
A blast of Aerosmith and off we go with “Livin’ It Up” and career into “Doubt She’s Coming Back” and “All Night Long”. It sounds great and the band are as tight as a well-torqued machine part but frontman Gottelier is getting more and more frustrated with a lack of vocals in the monitor, constantly asking for more from the sound team. Eventually, it transpires that the wedge is simply not working at all and once this is fixed he grimaces as it is now WAY too loud! Total professionalism though as throughout the issues the band sounds superb to those of us in front!
Flirting with more disaster Gottelier also keeps rushing to the edge of the stage to loom over the crowd as he plays, missing by millimetres a most inconveniently placed beam that would knock him senseless if he miscalculated in the passion of a solo.
As things settle and the band relaxes into the set whilst raising the energy we get a brand new song, “Slow and Easy” that whets the appetite for the future. I love the way the set moves through light and shade. One moment the song is high-energy rock and roll and the next takes on a more introspective tone with a song such as “Wild Honey”. There is even a brief acoustic break where Gottelier takes on an acoustic guitar and duets with some delicious keys from Bull on “Be My Salvation”.
The set takes off when the 14-song (ninety minutes!) set reaches “Testify”. The story is of how songs were written during lockdown and that when they were finally able to be played as a band something special happened and “Testify” showcases that and the band perfectly with a rhythm section from Liam Quinn and Ash Powell that must make the drinks vibrate off the tables upstairs along with two simply sublime solos from Gottelier and Robbie Blake.
More classy keyboards introduce the gospel feel of “Stand” and I find myself quietly praying as yet another near disaster occurs as a bottle of water is knocked over spreading a puddle around a LOT of live electrical equipment. Gottelier is now dancing between a small lake on one side and a perilous beam on the other but doesn’t hold back at all as the band finishes the set with “Steal Your Heart” and an encore of “Promised Land”.
I love small, intimate rock club gigs and this was one of the best with great crowd energy and two bands deserving of the plaudits. There is also that feeling that one day I will tell people that I was there when The Karma Effect played in a tiny pub basement as the future is certainly on MUCH bigger stages.
Remaining tour dates:
Thu 26 Sep – The Black Heart, London
Fri 27 Sep – Factory 251, Manchester
Tickets, HERE
