April the 22nd saw the arrival of the
Vans Warped Tour Acoustic Basement UK to London,
to Soho’s Borderline club, to be slightly
more precise. A ten day low key amble through
some of the UK’s most intimate music venues
was a chance to showcase the unplugged talent’s
of Thursday’s perma-youthful lead singer
Geoff Rickly accompanied on the bill by a few
unsung and up and coming artists from the alternative
acoustic scene. Without plundering through email
addresses and record label PR departments, it’s
impossible for me to say how well attended the
tour was as a whole, but if the turnout at the
cosy central London venue is anything to go by,
it’s safe to say there are fair few post-hardcore
casualties still willing enough to head down and
support one of the movement’s figureheads.
I spent a few minutes standing next to Charlie
Simpson from Fightstar while plucking up the courage
to ask him whether he was planning to persuade
his current bandmates rejoin his old ones on the
McBusted tour. I considered offering the suggestion
they call themselves McFisted. Sadly, he mumbled
something to his mate about a party in Islington
and left after the second act’s set. I’m
sure it will remain one of my life’s regrets.
Right, down to the music then. The first act
worth mentioning was Brian Marquis of Therefore
I Am ‘fame’ over in London from his
current residence in LA to showcase material from
his forthcoming album ‘Blood & Spirits’.
Apparently, the Acoustic Basement tour was the
brainchild of Marquis, and bearded Mr Marquis
threw himself into the set with plenty of fire
and passion, with no little amount of technical
ability, gamely tooting his harmonica and stomping
his feet along with each number. His gruff, powerful
vocal stood out particularly during slow burner
‘Breathing in Ghosts’. Another stand
out from the set was the up-tempo ‘Drink
you Up’, after which Marquis revealed that
he was last year struck by lightning during the
Warped Tour. It’s not often you share a
room with someone who can say that. All in all,
with the imminent release of Blood & Spirits,
the immediate future looks bright for Marquis
– as long as he avoids shielding himself
with tin foil during thunderstorms.
Rob Lynch was next on stage, armed with his acoustic
guitar and mildly amusing cheeky chappie presence.
In certain circles, there has been a buzz around
Lynch. Recently signed to Xtra Mile Recordings,
his debut album ‘All These Nights In Bars
Will Somehow Save My Soul’ is due for release
on the label, and he is supporting the aforementioned
Charlie Simpson, not the McFisted tour, but on
an acoustic run throughout the UK later this month.
The set the Englishman played at Borderline was
my first time hearing his music, and while inoffensive
and jolly enough, it seems the majority of his
work is essentially Frank Turner-lite. The pop-laden
and hooky single ‘Broken Bones’ lent
itself well to good old upbeat sing along, and
‘My Friends & I’ was crammed with
positivity, even if Lynch’s attempts to
involve the audience fell somewhat flat. ‘Whisky’
was a poignant moment during a generally jovial
set, and was undoubtedly his strongest moment
of the evening. Lynch is certainly armed with
a decent ability to write a good pop song and
further exposure could well see him enter the
mainstream, even if he does possess a somewhat
irksome stage presence – though most would
probably deem that endearing.
Occupying the final supporting slot of the evening
was Pennsylvania’s Andrew Koji Shiraki,
known simply as Koji when holding a guitar. His
introverted style could not have been further
removed from the previous act, introducing a more
introspective and lo-fi feel to proceedings. The
shy and retiring Koji began the set with some
choppy guitar work and heartfelt vocals, delivered
with pitch-perfect accuracy and bundles of emotion
and continued throughout, ‘Giants Sleeping’
embodied the general tone of the set, the intricate
harmony perfectly suited to the intimate venue.
Before his final song, Koji predicted that 2014
would be year of ‘peace, love and harmony’.
“Not if you’re Vladimir Putin!”
I refrained from shouting out in reply.
The final act of the night was of course Geoff
Rickly of Thursday. With the post-hardcore favourites
having officially been on a hiatus since 2011,
Rickly hasn’t found himself short of projects.
He is currently fronting United Nations, and has
appeared as a guest vocalist on a number of songs,
however this Basement tour provided the opportunity
for him to demonstrate his talents as a one man
show, and in London, he didn’t hold back.
As the frontman of Thursday, Rickly’s distinctive
delivery helped set the band apart from the also
rans of the scene – his unpredictable, sometimes
off-key vocals created an urgency and drama to
the band’s songs that complimented the wall
of noise behind them. It would be far easier to
comprehensively butcher an acoustic performance
by attempting to transfer such a delivery to stripped
back set of songs than it would to nail it spot
on, and the jury’s still out on which side
of the fence Rickly’s performance fell.
For instance, the juxtaposition between unplugged
guitar and full throttle vocal worked perfectly
when he covered Thursday classics ‘Standing
on the Edge of Summer’ and Understanding
in a Car Crash’ but sounded a touch jarred
and unbalanced during some of his own songs. There
was however a stirring cover of Bruce Springsteen’s
‘Atlantic City’ during which Rob Lynch,
Brian Marquis and Koji joined in backing vocals
on stage, and a good Springsteen cover, in my
opinion, is more than enough to turn a decent
enough set into a bloody good one.
Brian Marquis 3/5
Rob Lynch 3/5
Koji 4/5
Geoff Rickly 3/5
Review By Jack Turner
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