Reviewed by:
Just_Chaz, on february 05, 2007
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Sound: This is the first time I have ever seen OCS live, having heard how dynamic there albums are I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing I noticed was how many instruments there were on stage, 2 electric guitars, a bass guitar and the iconic drumkit at the centre of the stage but also at either side was a keyboard and a dulsimer. Although essentially OCS' music is quite simple, the sound is extremely powerful and dynamic, stuff was off beat, there was an enourmous ammount of soul and passion in every song, there was something very classy about the music, yet at the same time extremely raw. Steve Craddock; the lead guitarist; has an extremely unusual style, he uses semi hollow, hollowbodies and traditional Gibson Les Pauls to create a very tight aggressive tone, and his vast array of stomp boxes and expression pedals lets his guitar create some of the coolest and wierdest and dynamic noises imaginable. The mix and matching of instruments put on a good show, the bassist and keyboardist would swap here and there, the lead guitarist would sometimes play keyboard etc, over all the music itself was brilliant. The vocals were also equally creative, practically the whole band had a microphone, the harmonies were fantastic, the drummer Oscar Harrison also contributed with his own improvised vocal ragtime, I don't know if that's is a regular thing or whether it was a one time only show but it certainly did spice up the performance. The only downside on the sound was the lead singer, Simon Fowler's voice wasn't very clear through his microphone and was hard to hear sometimes, fortunately, me and the rest of the crowd all knew the lyrics to every song off by heart anyway. Overall, OCS sounded absolutely awesome. // 9
Perfomance: This particular gig was the Friday before Christmas, the festive season was well and truly here, you could feel the electricity in the crowd, we were all excited before the show even started, I was even lucky enough to be right up at the front to see the whole performance. As expected they opened up with "The Riverboat Song", which instantly put the crowd in party mode, everyone was jumping around and singing along in unison, they then played "outside of a circle" and the crowd became even more excited, it was thoroughly awesome. On the stage each band member had his own platform which built up like a stair case, at the top the drumkit, underneath these platforms were lights that made the platforms look different colours, and at the sides of the stages were these two towers of LED's which created a crazy light show. There are currently 6 members of Ocean Colour Scene, the three from the original line-up (Steve Craddock, Simon Fowler and Oscar Harrison) were quite clearly well experienced when it came to performing and interracting with the crowd, the newer three seemed to be quite shy, however this didn't spoil the performance too much. The lead guitarist is definately a performer, he would kick and jump around and make a bit of a fool of himself through the more bouncy songs, but at the same time would put an enourmous ammount of passion into his solos and instrumentals, having a vast collection of pedals helped to make his solos look more expressive because he had to jump around with the effects and play with his wah wah every 10 seconds, he was clearly excited, at one point in the set he accidently kicked his mike stand (with all his picks, slides and other gimmicks on) over and had to hook it with his foot to prevent it hitting the lead singer in the center stage. Simon Folwer the lead singer also put on a good show, when they played "Profit In Peace" he found himself in the position of having to stop the crowd from singing because we just didn't want to stop, then towards the end of the show came out for an Encore playing the beautiful "Robin Hood" which went into a quick first verse of Oasis' live forever, before playing "Hundred Mile High City" and the infamous "Day We Caught The Train". Overall the performance was very good, though not the most active, definately worth every penny paid. // 8
Impression: This gig was on Friday the 22nd of December, the weekend before christmas, it was at the Carling Apollo in Manchester, in the north west of England, There was a support band but the were so bland and boring I forgot Who they were, so I can't really comment on that however between the support band and OCS they pulled out a perculiar traditional english disc jockey with a funny purple shirt and a load of old records I've never heard, which was quite entertaining. I spent about 26 pounds on my ticket, it was definately worth, seeing them Live was definately an experience I'll remember, on the grounds that they put on such am honest and raw yet classy and cool show. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There weren't any specific memorable parts, the bits I'll remember was how they seemed so free to improvise where ever they wanted, that and the crazy antics and awesome guitar playing of steve craddock. During the more bouncy songs the crowd was free to jump around and we even got a mosh pit here and there, wasn't fantastically rough but you could feel the excitement, the crowd had a purely good time, I will most definately go and see them again. I recommend this band to anyone Who like pure honest good music. // 9
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