Palma Violets at The El Rey Theatre

It's been a somewhat hectic few weeks and so no opportunity until the past few days to update this blog. Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending upon your point of view) this has meant there has been no chance to blog about the veritable avalanche of gigs over the past weeks... Suffice to say that both The Vaccines at Club Mayan and Depeche Mode at the Santa Barbara Bowl were excellent (as, according to Mrs Blog, were the Stereophonics at the Fonda)... And seeing as it was a month ago, there's not even been the time to pen a few column inches as to how ab-so-fucking-lutely stunning The Arctic Monkeys were in ripping up the Wiltern on the opening night of their residency - except to advise that you really should beg, steal or borrow(?) a ticket if they're ever in a town near you...

But as it's only been about a week - although time tends to fly when you burn the candle at both ends - since a recent trip to the El Rey was called for in order to catch Palma Violets' closing night of their US Tour, so there's still time to organise a few random thoughts to share. 

Palma Violets have been gathering rave reviews back in Blighty, apparently went down a storm at Coachella and their album 180 is as good a 40 minutes of rib-kicking indie rock as you're likely to hear all year. I first saw the "all the way from Sarf Lahndan" (and I say this as someone wot speaks proper "Estuary English") 4-piece back in April opening for Franz Ferdinand and having successfully blown out their gig at the Echoplex, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity of seeing them headline in their own right...

Arriving early - weekend gigs allow you to do that - enabled the Blog and long-suffering Mrs Blog to catch New York’s Skaters open proceedings and who put in a sterling - if somewhat formalistic guitar-fueled shift in front of - once again - and it has to be said - only about a half-full, but fully committed, El Rey Theatre crowd...(Angelinos - once again, your loss...)

Palma Violets tear up the El Rey

Now I mentioned that Palma Violets were a 4-piece band. Well, yes, they're a rockin' quartet, but no review of a Palma Violets' gig would be complete without mention of honourary 5th member Harry "Violent" Jones - Merchandising guy and MC / Hype-man. I'd seen him at the aforementioned Fonda gig - cajoling the crowd, a one man whirling dervish rampaging through the mosh pit. Tonight, as MC, he firmly advises those loitering at the bar that "revolutions aren't started from 50 feet away..." 

Cue for the best thing to come out of Lambeth since the A23 to take to the stage and promptly tear the El Rey a new one... Their blistering one-hour set covered most of the album, with a few new songs and the occasional cover thrown into the mix. Charismatic bass / vocals of Alexander "Chilli" Jesson and guitars / vocals of Samuel Fryer lead from the front, and the El Rey was transformed into a writhing sea of flailing humanity... 

 

While there's (naturally) a lot of focus on the front two, kudos to drummer Martin Doyle, who lays down a solid beat with the sticks, and keyboardist Jeffrey Mayhew - who provides more than a glimpse of the solid R'n'B foundations of a band who aren't afraid to borrow ideas from both sides of the Atlantic (think The Doors, Ramones, Arctic Monkeys and The Clash - to name but a few).

And just like those aforementioned bands, it’s those live performances such as tonight's, that sets Palma Violets apart from the wannabes. 

This is a band going places - and those of us at the El Rey can say we did witness the start of a revolution...