The Four Horsemen, Bournemouth
After the pandemic restrictions have finally been lifted and with live music back once again, we have a matter of all the gigs that were cancelled re-arranged and cancelled again to catch up on. One of these is by Ayriss, a local duo made up of two brothers Jordan (vocals/bass/guitar) and Damien (drums). Tonight’s Sold Out gig is at the newly refurbished Four Horsemen in Bournemouth, where proprietors Dan Sullivan and Bert Burnell have been working hard in redecorating the place, making it ready for the vast amount of music events that the popular town centre venue have organised.
Jordan is a multi-talented artist who has gained his experience performing in a number of diverse bands and also working with other acts in his own production company Aryiss Productions. He also works at the local music hub Absolute Music and has had a hand in creating a great new studio space there.
The gig kicks off around 8:45pm with the Imagine Dragons classic “Radioactive”, the crowd seem to really relish being back in a room enjoying live music and show plenty of positive enthusiasm from the start. The duo have a host of technology at their disposal with snyths, loops, sequencers, and electronic Drum Pads. These are used to enhance the more conventional guitar, bass and drums, with Jordan switching between guitar/bass throughout the set.
The two hour set features original material from the entire “Ayriss” back catalogue, as well as appropriately selected covers and a couple of new tracks. Collaborator guitarist/vocalist Christo Loukopoulos has travelled all the way down from Loughborough to join the band on stage to perform the epic “Bitter Cold July”. During the track “Voices” the whole audience and the band all shared a special moment, with possibly the realization after so long that we are back enjoying what we all love so much. As the tune reached its crescendo, virtually everybody in the room just started dancing freely along to this brilliantly infectious number.
One of the new tracks “The Best Times” showed the band’s on-going experimentation with a track created with an unusual 7/8 time signature. It opens a flurry of Damien’s heavy percussion, coupled with a wall of synth and a ripple of the 7=string electric guitar (which is apparently called Joe) along with Jordan’s intense effect-fed vocal. Another new track followed called “Send Me Away”, which is an atmospheric gem that featured some truly inspirational guitar work. The only grumble of the evening was that sometimes the instrumentation drowned out the vocals and that could indeed be forgiven, it’s clearly not easy to get the balance right with so much technology involved.
The evening ended on a high as the audience created a series of moshpits; dancing to familiar tracks like Muse’s “Hysteria” and final track Royal Blood’s “Figure it Out”, giving people a good idea where Jordan and Damien get some of their influences from. The brothers leave the stage looking quite exhausted after such a momentous set, signalling their triumphant return to live music.
Set List
Radioactive (Imagine Dragons)
Adrift
The Grigori
Thunderhead
Control Your Breathing
Bitter Cold July (with Christo Loukopoulos)
Carry On
Catch Me
Fight the Feeling
Voices
Biblical (Biffy Clyro)
On My Side
Unexpected Bliss
Divide
The Best Times
Send Me Away
Down and Out
Feel it
Mary (The Subways)
It’s Ok
Hysteria (Muse)
I’m Fine
Relax
Encore
Can You Feel It
I’m a Fraud
Figure it Out (Royal Blood)
Links
https://www.facebook.com/ayrissmusic
https://ayrissmusic.bandcamp.com
Words & Pictures by David Chinery (Chinners)
