In our occasional series of getting musicians to don the reviewing hat and go out and view the action from the other side of the stage, we sent Tibet's vocalist Tom Rees out for a night in Cardiff.
Live Review
Spring King
The Moon Club, Cardiff
February 12 2016
Words/Photo: Tom Rees
Tonight Manchester indie-punk heroes Spring King hold court at The Moon Club, and it’s safe to say, I was excited. Very. Having listened to their tracks such as 'Mumma' and 'Who Are You', I had geared myself up severely for this one.
It seemed that the crowd filling The Moon Club's relatively small room were all feeling the same sense of tension as I was, as as we waiting expectantly for the arrival of the four familiar faces. Then, as the infamous double flash from a seemingly hidden stage tech’s flashlight bled through the room, the in-house music rose, and Spring King took to the stage.
Instantly, as they kicked off on 'Better Man, I realised how great sounding the band were, not just in regards to how they played, but how they had fine tuned every instrument to meld so well together, creating a deliciously rich wall of sound. At some points, however, the guitars did seem a little washed out, but the effect of this became clear in seconds later when their guitarist proceeded to rip my ears off, with an intense solo reminiscent of that really trippy twenty minutes near the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with all the lights and the endless time vortex.
The true effect of Spring King came in their gang-style vocal hooks, with all four members chanting at the same time throughout songs, giving their whole set a real Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 vibe, that made me want to run around in circles for ninety minutes with my shirt off, punching myself in the head (in a good way).
After several new songs including 'Detroit' - which frontman of sorts, at-the-back drummer Tarek Musa reveals will be on their debut album - along with one of their earliest, 'V-V-V-Vampire', we hit 'Mumma', a track for me that is the absolute prizefighter of Spring King's set, with a chorus made for singing and where all of the band members play through it effortlessly, like slicing through butter with a molten knife.
A rousing 'Who Are You?', which set the front rows on fire and into a moshing frenzy, and a cover of Grimes' 'Oblivion', and before I even knew it, it was over. Looking up to see no one on the stage, and hearing only the chatter of similarly bemused people around me, who all seemed to be still in the same daze as I was after having witnessed such a storming set.
Go and see Spring King if you can: they're sick.
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