Rock Regeneration

Jan25

Yeti Bianco/Dave Griffiths & The Brutal Years

on January 25th, 2018 at 20:32

Chaplin’s Cellar Bar, Boscombe

Tonight Chaplin’s is hosting two new outfits who are making their debut appearances here. The first is “Dave Griffiths and the Brutal Years”, Dave is no stranger to the local music scene. He runs various open mic and acoustic showcases, as well as playing in his covers band Dave Griff and the Trouser Band. The Brutal Years is a project that Dave has been wanting to get off the ground for a while. Back in the 1990’s you would have found Dave making the most of what the music scene had to offer supporting bands like Blur, Sonic Youth, Pavement and Radiohead. An Ep entitled “The Brutal Years” has recently been released and features 5 all original tunes, taking influences from some of his favourite artists back then. Tonight; along with his band, the EP gets it first live outing in front of an audience.

Dave and his three-piece band take to the Cellar Bar stage with a crowd of friends and family, eager to hear how the EP translates live. The band kick off with “Born” and the two guitars are loaded with a wide range of effects, which certainly do the tunes justice bringing them thoroughly to life. The band proceed to perform the whole EP which includes a homage to Blur’s Graham Coxon. The tune “Thank You Graham Coxon” sees Dave showing his musical heart with a huge display of affection towards the Blur guitarist. The tunes all predictably have a 1990’s feel and sound really good, the band works well as a unit with a great rhythm section providing some great depth. After the initial pressure of playing the new EP the band then seem to relax more and play a few older tunes and they end with a beautifully heartfelt tune called “Resurrection” dedicated to a lost friend. A very positive first time out for this new material, showing the vast versatility that Dave Griffiths has.

Dave Griffiths 1–2–3

Next up we have a new outfit from Lymington called “Yeti Bianco” featuring a known face around these parts; a certain Dave Baker, frontman with popular Ska band “The Guns of Navarone”. To say this is a departure from “The Guns” is an understatement, the band could not be more different. They are a four-piece with drums, John Feay on guitar, bass Robin Cutler with Dave on keyboards and vocals. The band kick off at around 10:30pm after a few final tweaks from resident soundman Conrad. Their sound is quite refreshing with the keyboards/synths combining with the electric guitar and some really well-delivered basslines. It reminds me a little of some of Future Islands material where the keys/synths take the lead, but with Yeti Bianco you get some nicely played guitar.

Yeti Bianco 1–2–3–4–5

The band play through a set of great tunes including the excellent “Look at the Sun”, “Chair in the Corner” and a great new, slightly more ambient tune called “Left Behind”. Towards the end of the band’s set they up the pace with some much more danceable tunes with some really infectious rhythms. Dave does a really good job on vocals and even includes some interesting vocal enhancements on “Rewind Back in Time”. It certainly is great to see a band that dare to be different and use an experimental approach to create a new exciting sound.

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