Joiners, Southampton
A short trip down the M27 brings us to the Joiners in Southampton, a venue that has been voted best small venue in the country by the NME which is well deserved and high praise for such a fantastic music venue with a great friendly atmosphere. Bournemouth Rock band Western Sand have chosen this as the place to launch their latest self titled four track EP, along with two great support acts to kick off the evening in style.
The first of these “Bitter Trash” (Formerly “Hollywood Trash”) were drafted in at the 11th hour as “Lock N Load” sadly had to pull out. The Southampton 4 piece cranked up the volume and blew away any cobwebs with a great 30 minute set of pure sleaze rock n roll, sounding like a cross between early Manic Street Preachers coupled with large amounts of Metallica style guitars on songs like the car bumper sticker title of “Honk if you’re Horny”, as well as “Mr Rock N Roll” and a welcome cover of “Riot in Everyone” by “Crash Diet”. Front man Tom stalked the stage delivering some powerful vocals, coupled with Marty Mayhem’s pleasing guitar riffs giving the early arrivals a seriously entertaining start to the evening.
Saints of Sin are up next and as they arrive onstage. The void in front of the stage is soon filled with fans eagerly awaiting the band’s set. Right from the start the bands look and hilariously choreographed moves gain a massive vote of confidence from the audience. Lead singer Rui commands the stage with a rod of iron, getting every member of the audience involved with the hand clapping, chanting back lyrics and lots of general positive acknowledgement. The band despite only being in the early stages of their career have a massive amount of youthful talent, and give a very energetic performance with a set full of their own material that immediately gets you hooked from the 1st listen. Their influences have so obviously been generated from rifling through their parents record collections as they are all far too young to remember the like’s of Poison, Motley Crue and Kiss. With songs such as opener “Living Young” and the autobiographical “Born From Pieces” their set was one long highlight and Western Sand have a difficult task in following them.
Tonight Western Sand are on a mission and there is no stopping their progress. The band arrive on stage in a packed Joiners to a almost homecoming hero’s welcome. The band have worked very hard building a loyal fan base since forming in Bournemouth in 2008 with support slots for bands like Nazareth, Heaven’s Basement and Jett Black already under their belts. As the “Dirty Harry” intro music fades the two guitars light up, the bass kicks in and drummer Nathan J Kay hit the drums with a force that both John Bonham and Keith Moon could hear from their resting places. The Gods of Rock have truly blessed Western Sand with a talent and an extreme energy that really delivers to the very expectant and hard to please Joiners crowd. As well as the new tracks from the EP the band delve deep into their almost forgotten past performing some refreshed and reworked songs from their debut album “Truckload Of Trouble”. “Two Rivers Meet” and “Bad News” are also greeted with plenty of enthusiasm from the very lively and vocal crowd.
To add to the band’s usually all male line up they are joined by female vocalist Kristina Underwood to add some pleasant harmonies. Sadly she was quite difficult to hear at times as the guitar levels were seemingly up to the max. The band brought out a tray of free drinks to hand out to the audience to toast the evening, much to the delight of everyone in the front three rows and once these were despatched they continued upping the pace to another notch with the big tune “Welcome To The Badlands”. This band are definitely going places and tonight’s performance has proved that they are ready to make the leap up to the next level and ready show the world that Bournemouth does well and truly rock.
Set Lists
Western Sand
Intro; Dirty Harry
Dark Horse
Two Rivers Meet
Better Days
Take It Away
Place I Call Home
Dog Without a Bone
Broken Bones
Bad News
Back On the Road Again
Going Down
Welcome to the Badlands
Nothing to Lose
Tear Me Apart
Hair of the Dog
Saints Of Sin
Intro: Prelude To Sin
Living Young
On Top Of My World
Judgement Day
One More Minute
Born From Pieces
Animal
Burn The Clubs Down
Bitter Trash
Sympathy
Riot in Everyone (Crash Diet cover)
Mr Rock N Roll
Guitar Solo
Honk if you’re Horny
Rollin On
Sordid ‘N Immoral
Videos
Band Links
http://www.westernsand.co.uk
http://saintsofsin.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/BitterTrash
Review & Videos By Dave “Three Gigs A Week” Chinery(Chinners)
Pictures By Dan “I hate red lights, now I have to convert the pix to Black & White” O’Gara
