Rescue Rooms, Nottingham - There’s always a lot of excitement when ‘When Rivers Meet’ are in town and tonight is no exception. Nottingham is a city with a good vibe at the best of times, but when a band of this calibre arrive, the levels are notched up a level or two.
As the first Blues band, on an independent record label to ever get an album in the Top Ten of the UK Charts, you know they’re something special and you can sense that you’re in for a good night as you approach the venue and see fan after fan, all decked out in the latest Merch, in high spirits at what they’re about to enjoy.
Grace Bond says of the tour… “Aaron and I are excited to be performing songs from the Aces Are High album. The new songs are powerful and intense. They represent where we are right now as both writers and performers. It’s an exciting journey and we look forward to sharing the ride with our dedicated fans.”
The Rescue Rooms, one of my favourite venues, plays host to them tonight, but first we have a Support to witness.
The Dusk Brothers
Now, I’ve seen quite a number of bands in my time, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. The Dusk Brothers define themselves as a 'dark swamp blues' two-man-band from Bristol. You could’ve sold me ‘dark swamp blues’ if you’re from Louisiana or some other town in the deep South of America as I’d have bowed my head to my ignorance and waited to be educated, but from Bristol ? In the UK ? Well, that’s going to take a bit more convincing - or alcohol – one or the other, or both.
The press release says “The gritty dark swamp blues sound of Dusk Brothers draws heavily on their unconventional arsenal of self-built instruments. Guitars fashioned from old metal boxes; ‘Frankenstein’ foot drums created by ripping down 55-gallon oil drums and bolting them onto sawn-off bass drum shells and custom valve guitar amplifiers built from scratch in their own workshop provide a raw, bluesy backdrop for growling vocal harmonies and blues harp.” Surely this is some sort of comedy act off Britain’s Got Talent ? But Supporting When Rivers Meet ? Surely not ? So, I await to be educated.
The stage looks like a piece of Tracy Emin artwork has been installed on it, reminiscent of ‘my bed’ but in a musical stylee, but these are actual instruments and at the appropriate time our two troubadours appear dressed in Stetsons, cowboy boots and anything else they could lay their hands on with a country and western vibe. They take their seats, and they begin – but only after Wendy in the audience, hands them two huge bags of M and M’s - the size that wouldn’t pass for hand luggage on Ryanair. Why? No one knows, but the boys gratefully receive them… and then start.
The sound is a mixture of stomping, thudding, steel guitar, pounding and any other noise that they can muster from such a rag-tag bag of gear, but its captivating to see and hear and they whistle through half a dozen songs before taking a breath.
Before their final tune, our guitar man realises that this is the song where they change key and he needs a capo, which he’s forgot and has to go off stage to get one, so our drummer gives us a theremin lesson, which he bought off eBay “cheap from a bloke that didn’t know how to work it but a drummer that can do electronics can fix it” and so a new instrument was added to their collection and sound.
The venue was only half full when they started, which was surprising as it’s a very early start tonight, but the sun was doing a fine job rehearsing for the 28-degree weather predicted over the weekend and the beer garden was rammed. By the time they’d finished though, the room was full, and the Dusk Brothers had educated and indoctrinated all around into ‘dark swamp blues’ and we were grateful for it. They got a huge cheer at the end and a whole new fan base had arrived at their door. Nottingham still couldn’t make much sense of it, in many ways, but it loved every minute.
There’s an album, ‘Roses in the Bonecart’ due out in August and I reckon it’s worth a tenner of anyone’s money.
Dusk Brothers Set List
1. High For Pain
2. Hold On
3. Ladies Man
4. The Last Damn Troubadour
5. The Old Holler Medicine Show
6. This Is Hell
7. The Firing Line
8. I Became King
When Rivers Meet
At the allotted hour, the Bond’s plus two appear on stage to a dull drone sound echoing all around, accompanied by swirling graphics on a backdrop that duly announces who we are all here to see. They hit the ground running with the track that opens the album ‘Infected’ and the crowd are immediately drawn into the fray. Its loud and pacy and ‘Seen It All Before’ and ‘Play My Game’ both carry on where it leaves off.
Grace and Aaron are accompanied by the familiar back line of James Fox on drums and acoustic guitar and Adam Bowers on bass, keyboards and guitar and collectively they’re as solid and knitted together as they’ve always been.
Both of the Bonds are front and centre but it’s Grace that captivates as everyone follows her every move as she takes full advantage of the space she has to move about in. The interplay between them says everything about them musically and personally and it passes through the crowd as they devour every word and note.
Aaron does get his moment though as ‘Battleground’ was hugely cheered and applauded by the crowd prompting him to announce that “Nottingham truly f’ing rocks” - which got an even greater cheer.
Grace then rules however that things are slowed down somewhat, and as most of the crowd are nestled safely in the palm of her hand, Nottingham duly agrees. We are treated to ‘I’d Have Fallen’ which is very well received and appreciated as the strains of her violin fade into the distance, only to be replaced by the haunting intro of ‘A Dead Man Doesn't Lie’ which turns into a powerful track once the haunting has passed.
With a moment to breathe, Grace tells us that “they are at No. 9 in the official charts – the first independent blues band in the UK to have an album in the official top ten” – did I steal her thunder at the beginning of all this ? Oops !
Aaron now acts like the kid in the proverbial sweet shop as he introduces us to his shiny new guitar before taking centre stage and vocal for ‘Trail of Avalon’. Afterwards Aaron says that he can safely say “that guitar rocks” Ahhh, boys and their toys, eh ?
Grace now regales us of a time when they were rehearsing at The Boathouse, where they were having a bit of a chilled time sitting by the river on a hazy day in Suffolk - which is what we’re all supposed to picture now, in the middle of Nottingham (!), when James Fox started to pick at this tune that they decided worked so well, they let him have his head and ‘Eye of a Hurricane’ was born. Aaron’s vocal again takes centre stage but it's Grace’s haunting vocal that eventually takes over with the refrain “you’re the only friend of mine” and the crowd remains silent while it echoes around the place.
Time for the Bonds to fully recognise the love they have for their back line boys… for Adam Bowers for being the arranger, producer and everything else that he does and for James Fox who played keyboards for them at their first ever gig, but migrated to the drums - a fine choice if I may say so myself, and a fine drummer he is too.
A little bizarrely, but once the applause have subsided, they leave the stage (!) leaving Grace and Aaron for “By Your Side” with a twin vocal accompanied by muted lighting and a classic mirror ball shooting piercing beams of light across the whole room. There was a look of amazement at the end from Grace as she was taken away by the perfect silence from the crowd that the song richly deserved. But now, she decrees, that it was time to crank it up a few notches with the title track of the album ‘Aces are High’.
Big love then goes out to the Dusk Brothers who Grace says “they saw at a festival last summer and immediately asked them to tour with them” - and that’s why up and coming artists should play at every opportunity that they ever get as you never know who’s in the crowd and where it’ll lead. Lesson over.
‘5 minutes to midnight’ is a pulsating tune with a false ending that’s held long enough for a smattering of applause to appear, before the avalanche hits home again. Aaron tells us “That they’ve nearly played all of the new album but now, but we want to throw it back to the ‘We Fly Free’ album for ‘Walking on the Wire’ which segways ever so nicely into the final track of the night, ‘Free Man’.
No sooner had the Bonds started to walk off stage, the applause turned into a fast hand clap to insist on more, demanding an encore, then Nottingham realises that only the front two had left the stage and the back two remained in place and Bowers had begun wheel out the keyboard from the side of the stage. By the time he’d done this and taken his place, Mr and Mrs Bond were back to even more applause which took a while to subside before they began a dreamy and emotional version of ‘Golden’ with both vocals feeding off each other and harmonising together as if they were one.
Rules dictate that you should always finish on a high and that it should also be loud. Grace knows this and asks, “Have we got time for one more” and before anyone has chance to object, she insists that all hands are raised in the air for “this banger”. ‘Did I Break the Law’ is the final tune with Grace reckoning that “Nottingham has this” so she points the microphone forward and hands over the vocal - and Nottingham did indeed.
I’ve said it before, that this band just can’t put a foot wrong. They were the first band to win four awards at the UK Blues Awards 2021. They won another three the following year, including Blues Band of The Year on both occasions, which they won again in2023, making them the only band to win the category three years in a row, and the only band to be inducted into the UK Blues Awards Hall of Fame for this category. How far can they go in the future ? Who knows, but one thing is for certain, there ain’t no stopping them at the moment - and long may it continue.
When Rivers Meet Set List
Infected
Seen It All Before
Play My Game
I Can’t Fight This Feeling
Bound for Nowhere
My Babe Says That He Loves Me
Battleground
I'd Have Fallen
A Dead Man Doesn't Lie
Trail to Avalon
Eye of a Hurricane (Friend of Mine Pt2)
By Your Side
Aces Are High
Perfect Stranger
The Secret
5 Minutes to Midnight
Walking on the Wire
Free Man
Encore:
19. Golden
20. Did I Break the Law
ACES ARE HIGH TOUR 2024
Sat 27th April – Southampton, The Brook
Sun 28th April – Bristol, Thekla
Thu 2nd May – Manchester, Gorilla
Fri 3rd May – Glasgow, St Luke’s
Sat 4th May – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Thu 9th May – Norwich, Epic Studios
Fri 10th May – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
Sat 11th May – London, The Garage
You'll find more images of When Rivers Meet, by clicking here...
You'll find more images of The Dusk Brothers, by clicking here...
Written in association with Noble PR
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