GREEN LUNG & TORUS
Lee Harper
A good friend whose musical judgment I trust almost implicitly kept banging on at me to see GREEN LUNG. I agreed without having heard a note. I listened for the first time yesterday and, well, on record they are not for me and I feared this would be a mistake. But more of GREEN LUNG below.
First up, we have young trio TORUS.
There is something kinda life affirming about a band where none of the members seem old enough to have been born less than decade after the passing of Kurt Cobain playing this kind of music.
With a sound that combines Melvins with Nirvana and touches of Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder to the vocals, this took me right back to the Sunday of Reading '92 and, whilst they do nowt new, that is a good thing.
And so to GREEN LUNG. When I streamed ’em on Bandcamp yesterday, I was apprehensive about tonight’s show. This was the type of NWOBHM-style metal that I would have loved in my mid-teens but left behind a loooong time ago.
The backdrop and side screens - all faux pagan and satanic imagery - added to the apprehension. It is no surprise that the live show is definitely old-school metal in style but there’s more to the music than that.
There’s more than a hint of the heavier end of prog to the keyboards - dare I say they even brought Focus and ELP to mind? - but there are also big doses of Deep Purple/Rainbow style classic rock and a slight dash of grunge and it is FUN. This is a proper band that are tight as hell, clearly enjoy what they are doing and put on a show. More than that, there is a great atmosphere, with more patch emblazoned denim battle jackets and synchronised devil’s horns than I have seen in decades. It’s like Madchester, Britpop and Mel never happened and, you know what, I ENJOY it.
Look, GREEN LUNG'S recorded work might not be for me but they are a wholly enjoyable live experience. Would I see them again? Hell YEAH, like a shot.
FULL GALLERY HERE
