Having been described as ‘the most exciting and uber-talented rock band in the UK at present’, Damn Vandals released their latest album Rocket Out Of London recently, which saw the band receive the highest of critical acclaim from across all areas of the media – both for their album and their live launch gig. After such impressive words we had to check out their latest live date,] and Matt Tarr headed down to Hoxton to see what they hype was about.
With an extremely intimate and cosy crowd, that failed to reach even double figures, it could have been forgiven for the band to simply give up and play a mediocre show to get out as quickly as they could, but this was not to be. From start to finish Damn Vandals played as if there were 10,000 people watching, and the passion that they feel for their music was evident throughout.
With a set that lasted less than an hour, tracks such as ‘Trouble With Jesus’ and ‘Can’t Go Dancing When You’re Gone’ saw the band perform a selection from their 2012 debut album, Done For Desire,and mixing them with album tracks from their latest LP, Rocket Out Of London,such as ‘I Hate School’, meaning that the crowd were treated to a set which covered tracks from across the band’s career thus far.
‘Whiskey Going Free’ was a standout track as Frank Pick’s villainous sounding guitar riffs provided the perfect backdrop for Jack Kansas’ growling vocals, and ‘Rocket Over London’ saw the band in their most dynamic state as the intensity of every band member shone through and the dedication to their latest release became clearly evident.
Instrumentally, Damn Vandals are a huge prospect and being two albums down have shown time and time again just how skilled at creating catchy riffs and dirty rock and roll music they are. Vocally, Jack Kansas is a gnarly, gruff voiced lead singer whose powerful voice takes control of each track and demands respect from the listener; occasionally, however, this can fall into more of an awkward shout which threatens to undermine the strength of the instrumental scenery his bandmates are offering him.
Unfortunately, on this showing, the band didn’t quite live up to their pre-billing as “the most exciting underground rock band in the UK”, but if Kansas can maintain his vocal strength and the band continue to produce excellent songs then there is no reason why these guys can’t go far.
Matt Tarr
Matt Tarr
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