Tonight was a night I had been looking forward
to in a long time, as Reef were one of the bands
I grew up listening to, I still remember buying
their album ‘Glow’ in 1997 and everyone
in school talking about it (yeah I’m showing
my age now), and then going on to watch them live
at the Colston Hall in Bristol a few years later
and also watching them at an intimate set at Walkabout
in Newquay.
Before the gig I conducted an interview with
Reef guitarist Kenwyn House who was a super friendly
man who had a lot to say, as soon as the interview
was done I went to meet up with my friends before
heading back to the venue in enough time to find
a good position to watch Reef.
We made it into the venue at 8.45pm which was
a good 15 minutes before Reef were due on the
stage and at this point there was still crowds
of people queuing up to get into the venue, the
crowd was defiantly an older crowd tonight with
ages ranging from 18 to at least 60, there were
also a few parents in the venue with their young
children which I thought was quite sweet.
Reef made it on to the stage at 9pm, the room
went dark as Reef walked onto the stage, they
jumped straight into ‘Come Back Brighter’
which to be fair was the best song they could
of possibly started with, it got the crowd moving
and the whole room singing along like Reef had
never been away from the music scene.
The band looked really happy on stage and preformed
like they were enjoying every minute of the show,
front man Gary Stringer still doesn’t look
a day over 20, whilst bassist Jack Bessant has
gone for the Jesus look with his long hair and
massive beard added 10 years on to him, Kenwyn
House still looked a fresh faced and happy as
ever before, whilst drummer Dominic Greensmith
was situated at the back of the stage hidden behind
massive amounts of smoke for the majority of the
show.
The show was like a big greatest hits show with
23 songs being played in just under 2 hours, there
was no new material but there were a few b-sides
and old classics thrown in that many people have
probably never witnessed Reef play live before,
some of the highlights for me was ‘Consideration’,
‘Lucky Number’ and ‘Superhero’
as each and every one of those songs I have listened
to over and over again on record and it was so
good to see them preformed live once again.
The song which got the crowd in the academy moving
the most was ‘Place Your Hands’ now
the song was played during the middle of the set,
I thought it would of been left until near the
end as it is the song that pretty much everyone
in the UK instantly knows if you mention the band
Reef as it was a big hit when released back in
1996, but then again this was a show for the true
fans and not as festival show where you have to
cater to a mixed crowd.
A couple of songs after ‘Place Your Hands’
Gary Stringer took to the stage with his acoustic
guitar for a beautiful rendition of ‘I’ve
Got Something To Say’, the song went down
a treat with everyone signing and swaying along,
whilst the people in the pit had a few minutes
to catch their breath from nonstop moshing.
After ‘Choose To Live’ Reef took
a short break before coming back to play a 4 song
encore which consisted of ‘Naked’,
‘Waster’, ‘ Yer Old’ and
‘End’, it was good to see some old
song’s played towards the end of the set
as song’s such as ‘Naked’ feature
crazy psychedelic tribal sounds that only Reef
can pull off and they pulled it off in style tonight.
Everyone must of left the academy tonight with
a massive smile on their face as Reef put on a
storming set that sounded very tight, instrumentally
they sounding like they had been doing this for
their whole life which technically is true but
we have to remember that they have had a 7 year
break but that didn’t affect their sound
at all, vocally Gary Stringer sounded as strong
and unique as he always has.
The only issue I had with the show was with the
overzealous security who had their jobs worth
heads on tonight telling people off for moshing
to much, telling people they can’t go through
certain doors and telling others off for taking
photos but still I am sure everyone brushed this
on the shoulder and didn’t let it ruin such
an awesome gig.
Reef 5/5
Review By Trigger
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