 |
| The sign outside the venue tempting people in for epic food and a vintage mood. |
I only found The White Buffalo by chance after seeing his name in LA Weekly and thinking 'that's a cool name, i wonder what they sound like'. So I got straight onto Spotify and gave the album Once Upon a Time in the West a listen. I was hooked after half of the first track. I spoke to my good friend Sareth Ney and asked if he wanted to go. Lo and behold he was covering it for The Examiner and said he'd ask if we could get some extra tickets to join him (I love this guy).
He did so we set off for some grub and a gig that I was VERY excited about. We got there and The White Buffalo were sound-checking. Jeez they sounded good. Excitement enhanced further, we ate outside as the venue filled up steadily. The place has a very Malibu feel to it, which if you've ever been down that way, you understand what I mean. It's such a relaxed atmosphere, the food was good, the beer chilled and the subtle hint of the ocean in the nostrils.
The support band were The Janks. A local-ish band fronted by brothers Zack (vocals and guitar) and Dylan (vocals, mandolin, percussion) Zmed with Leon LeDoux on drums and Paul Inder (Lemmy from Motorhead's son) on bass. Their music was a mix of rock and folk offering a different twist on the genre made popular again by the likes of Mumford and Sons. Their track Ratracers has an element of The Mars Volta mixed with Black Sabbath and Cream. It was a phenomenal track to hear live with Zack's vocals and guitar playing superb throughout. They gave out free sampler albums too which was a great touch. I'd have bought it anyways so I gave a donation. I'm tempted to go and see then again at the Troubadour before we leave in January.
When The White Buffalo came out the crowd went nuts. Jake Smith's voice is a dream. I wish I had a voice like that. It's just so effortless when he sings. We were really close to the front and very excited about what lay ahead. So just my luck that the sound tech had on to forget. The stage monitors didn't work, something the band complained about to him throughout, and the speakers closest to us also didn't work, which all meant that all we heard throughout the entire performance was the fucking drummer (Matt Lynott), who hit the skins as hard as anyone I can remember seeing. But instead of quickly trying to fix the mix and the monitors the sound guy just stayed behind the safety of his desk. I was half tempted to fix it myself. The mix was easily the worst of any gig i've ever been to, and just destroyed the vocal talents of Smith and the steel guitarist Tim Walker. Poor Tommy Andrews' microphone cut after the first track so he just slapped his bass as any good bassist should. On the tracks which either had no drums or required less of a beating, Smith's gorgeous vocal warmth shone through. Acoustic tracks such as I Wish It Was True and his cover of Lynyrd Skynyrds T is for Texas was excellent, mainly due to lack of drums. Ballad of a Deadman and How The West Was Won (the crowd went nuts for this one in particular, with plenty of dancing) and The Pilot were other favourites.
Overall I was disappointed by the gig but I can't lay the blame with any of the musicians (yes, even the drummer) for that. I lay the blame squarely with the sound tech. Whatever happened between sound-check and the gig was damaging to the gig and the fact he seemingly did nothing to resolve it was possibly worse. I'd love to see Jake Smith and his band again at a different venue and I can't sing the praises of his album, and previous EPs, highly enough. There's also a YouTube video (see below) of The White Buffalo playing The Pilot, which shows the kind of sound quality I heard at sound-check and expected throughout. I implore you to check them out. You won't regret it.
No comments:
Post a Comment