Canvas Bar, Bournemouth
With an impressive amount of pre-release album promotion on a host of radio stations; and a notable play of “Getting Out Alive” on the Johnny Doom show on Kerrang radio, tonight South Coast FOUR-piece Rock band ‘Tarraska’ are at Canvas in Bournemouth for their album launch party. Like everything else the event has been delayed due to the pandemic and this evening, the venue is packed with curious music lovers, hoping to find out what all the fuss is about.
At 8:15pm the lights go down and the intro music starts with the atmospheric scene-setting Georgian chants of the Halo Ce Theme. The band takes to the stage and gets themselves a huge welcome from their home crowd, which features a host of excited family members and friends. Kicking off with ‘Getting Out Alive’ the band unleashes their powerful melodic Rock sound into the ears of the audience. The band comprise Brothers Jack Lande on Vocals/Guitar & Ollins Lande on bass, with Ben Parker on Lead Guitar and Allan Varnfield on Drums. Apparently, the guys were suffering from a few nerves before the show as this is the first time that these songs have been performed live. These nerves are certainly not showing as the band performs confidently, and start to bring to life all of the hard work that they have been carrying out in the studio over the last couple of years.
The audience is a bit reserved and the band does their best to whip them up with plenty of encouragement to clap and sing along. They dutifully oblige during ‘Down Below’, a song dedicated to all the grassroots venues that support live music. ‘White Flower’ is one of the highlights with Ben’s intense guitar work, which perfectly drives the song. One of my favourite tracks on the new album is “Requiem” and I am keen to see how this transfers when performed live. I am not disappointed, this emotive song is dedicated to the band’s late friend Lewis Johnstone and Jack does his memory proud with a stirring vocal performance.
The hugely understated rhythm section is the backbone to much of tonight’s performance with the engine room powered by one of the area’s best drummers Allan Varnfield, who teams up perfectly with a young Geddy Lee look-a-like Ollins. ‘Chimera’ is another of the album tracks that impressively shines and uplifts the crowd tonight. The set ends with the single “Prose” after the band has played the album in full and once again they get the crowd singing along, this time it’s louder and more enthusiastically than before. With a modern take on the classic Rock sound, these guys are a welcome addition to the local Rock scene and I’m sure we will be seeing plenty of them in the future.
Set List
Intro: Hale CE Theme
Getting Out Alive
Renegade
Shifting Gears
Run For Your LIfe
Down Below
White Flower
Requiem
Say No Prayer
Trailblazer
Chimera
Sins Of The Other
Prose
Videos
Links
https://www.tarraska.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tarraskamusic
Words & Video by David Chinery (Chinners)
Photographs by Dan O’Gara.
