SZYSLAK/COOL REKZ/SAUR
Donkey 2nd November 2023
First Thursday of the month and it's back to The Donkey Venue for Paul's "Free Entry" gig... an evening that for me is a delightful voyage of discovery as most of the acts I see have been new to me...
Tonight was, in Paul's words. going to be a loud one... so...
First up was SAUR... or at least because of illness, 25% of them...
I believe they are basically a punk style band so probably difficult for one musician to properly represent the band... However, he did a fine job in an entertaining and well delivered set.
The songs were pretty good and showed a nice balance of theme and light and shade and were performed with confidence and style. The the bands second guitarist stepped up to join in with the final two numbers. The presentation lends itself well to a punk band setting and I would be interested to see the full band.
One small criticism from me... Leonard Cohen has always been a major part of my musical life, and the most enigmatic of songs, Hallelujah, has a lot of personal connections for me... and i really disliked the punk arrangement which i felt showed a lack of understanding of, and respect for, the song... that said... it was only a couple of minutes long and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the set.
Next up were the excellent Cool Rekz who I had seen and enjoyed before on a previous thursday evening, and they didnt disappoint tonight... with respect, In common with most of the bands on these showcases i doubt they will headline Glastonbury in the near future... but Cool Rekz play tasty rock'n'roll for the joy of playing it, and the joy of being in a band... Key to the band is the quality and drive of drummer Alisia while Dave' guitar gives a focus and Ant's bass rumbles along at times and at other times can scream...
Sure there were a couple of glitches along the way, but this is a damn good band who delivered a hugely enjoyable set of original material, with one cover (ShouldI Stay or Should I Go/The Clash) which they deliver in fine style
Really enjoyable set.. here's to the next one!!
Finally we had Szyslak, an electric duo of guitar and drums. The early part of their set was somewhat blighted by problems with the drum kit, but to their credit they rode this and didnt let it affect them. They are a covers band who are just about fun and enjoying it... the range of covers was in many ways unlikely and somewhat eclectic... ranging from Fontella Bass, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes (i suspect these songs have been covered and made famous again by others, which may be the source of these versions, rather than the versions I know from my younger days!!), Johnny Cash and others. The guitarist delivered some fairly tasty moments and played with huge energy throughout, as did the drummer.
They went down well especially with a definitely partisan cheering section... and I can see the attraction of the style and of the band, but i'm sorry... this was not to my taste... each individual song was ok, but whatever the song, they all sounded, to me, exactly the same and just noise, and I did not enjoy it...
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