Music > Live Reviews

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats

Norwich Arts Centre

12/12/16

I rather like a Sunday night gig. It requires a bit more effort than any other night of the week. It’s a true test of just how good an act is, and just how much you actually want to see them. The audience generally expect a low key affair, watching how much they drink as Monday morning looms large. I feared the worst then when I arrived at a very quiet Arts Centre just before 8.

Support for the evening were three piece Vodun, a band I’ve been aware of for a little while and was looking forward to catching them in support of their debut album Possession. Daubed in fluorescent body paint and decked out in tribal gear they certainly made an impression as they took the stage. The main focus of the band is frontwoman Chantal Brown – or Oya as she is known in this group. The line-up is completed by Marassa on guitar and Ogoun on drums. Really. I’m all for theatrics and made up names, I dig Venom after all, but sadly I found the overall effect of the band underwhelming. The sound lacked clarity, I didn’t really get a sense of unity from the members and what subtleties there are on the album were mostly lost on stage. Chantal’s voice came across as shrill rather than soulful, although I was hugely impressed with Ogoun’s drumming, and last track Legba’s Feast was percussively impressive. I had very high hopes for Vodun but found them disappointing and some way off being the finished article.

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats seem to have come quite a long way in a short space of time. Four albums in six years is prolific in this day and age, they’ve supported Sabbath and have firmly established themselves at the forefront of the UK’s stoner/doom/psych metal scene. I mention Sabbath and we may as well acknowledge the fact that the band are obviously huge fans, so many riffs referenced them, the tone of the guitar solos were often Iommi-esque. Did it matter? Not to me or the by now packed Arts Centre crowd, isn’t that why we were all there? From minute one of opening number Mt. Abraxas I knew this show was going to deliver. Whereas Vodun had sounded muddy and ill defined, the sound for Uncle Acid was brilliant – heavy, loud & powerful but also crystal clear. As has been the way with so many of the gigs I have seen at the Arts Centre throughout 2016, the lighting was also really impressive, creating the perfect mood for this kind of music and allowing the band to present A Proper Show.

The vocals are handled by guitarists Kevin Starrs and Yotam Rubinger, re-creating the harmonies of the recorded songs perfectly. Mind Crawler and Over and Over Again came early in the set, the former’s sinuous lysergic groove an absolute delight, the latter getting some old school head banging going. Track of the night for me was a slamming rendition of I’ll Cut You Down before an epic almost ten minute version of Slow Death. The three song encore was great, but even after nearly 90 minutes I, and the rest of the crowd, could have happily had more. Although many of the songs have a very simple groove, there was plenty going on within which gave the music a definition and complexity. The only thing that could make their live show even better would be to fully go down the road of liquid lightshows, projections and strobes so we can completely lose our minds.

Norwich Arts Centre is a world class venue which provided a world class live band with the platform to show us what they can do. Monday morning may have arrived with me barely able to move my sore neck, but it was a small price to pay to see a quality metal band playing in my favourite venue.