Its not two months yet since MV last found itself watching When Rivers Meet. The fact that this gig has been postponed twice explains that, but nonetheless, it’s intresting to see them back down as a support.
Genuine headliners, these days, and not too far away from headlining rooms like this, WRM are an impressive band.
With 40 minutes tonight to win a crowd over that is very much there for the headliners, the voice and charisma of Grace Bond and the stunning playing of Aaron Bond underpins this and gives it a real class.
“Play My Game” exudes a sass and a skill and they have a way of writing that is infectious.
There is an almost simplistic brilliance about what they do. “Never Going Home”, “Did I Break The Law” , “Innocence Of Youth” and others all have their stamp on, and the slide guitar of Bond is wonderful throughout, but never better than on “My Babe Says He Loves Me”.
As they’ve been doing recently the band play a new song. “Perfect Stranger” sounds slightly more polished than previously, perhaps, but it still bodes well for the new album, while “Run For Your Life” ends things in rauca ous fashion.
Even in this abridged form tonight (and with no “Testify” in the set) it’s absolutely clear to everyone watching that When Rivers Meet are going places. Where they will end up flowing is anyone’s guess – but wherever it is, Mr And Mrs. Bond are creating a splash
In the spring of last year, A played a set in Birmingham. I hadn’t seen them for years. I was inordinately excited about it. That night, though, we came away talking about the headline act. A band who I’d never seen live back in the day, and who staggered me with how good they were.
That band was Reef.
Consequently, tonight feels like a very different in terms of expectation levels. And for an hour and a half or so, Reef set about underlining it was no one-off and they really are a fantastic live act.
“Shoot Me Your Ace” is one of a number from the album they stuck out last year (and which singer Gary Stringer refers to as “the new album” still) and what it does do is showcase the fine guitar playing of Amy Newton early on.
They deftly and cleverly navigate the old and the new, though and “Naked” is pretty much where it began.
Stringer woke up feeling under the weather this morning, but he still finds his falsetto for “Consideration” but more than that there’s a line on the track which sums them up: “It’s gonna be alright” goes the hook and there’s always that feeling with Reef at their best that they are as carefree as a bloke who’s just taken delivery of a new hammock and has the afternoon off.
They just have a way of making things anthemic. “I’ve Got Something To Say” is just that, then there are a couple of absolutely copper bottom hits. Credit to them for chucking “Place Your Hands” and “Come Back Brighter” in like they aren’t a big deal. Most bands would leave it for the encore. Not here. Reef are too relaxed to worry about such things.
The newer songs have fitted in superbly to be fair to them, “Refugee” (“I love this one, the big man wrote the whole thing” says Stringer, pointing at Jack Bessant, his oppo throughout the years) belongs with “Summer In Bloom”, say – and of course in Reef’s world it always is – or the wonderful “Revelation”.
At the end of “Don’t You Like It?” a hymn to youthful exuberance, Stringer sings “I’m a young man” and that bit of the band is still there. They have that carefree 90s air, and when they come back for “Mellow” with just Stringer and Bessant, there’s a warm breeze.
The band join them for a trio of older tunes “Good Feeling”, “Yer Old” and “End”, its clear that they’ve got the balance right. They aren’t the same band as 30 years ago, but yet they are.
Their hometown of Glastonbury gets invaded every year by a load of people that never seem to like music very much as far as I can tell. There’s something of an irony that a couple of hundred miles north, indoors, Reef delivered almost the perfect festival headlining set
