HEK and Concrete Fun House live at the HMV Empire
Review
I'm glad to say I caught some great performances of original material from highly talented musicians yesterday at Coventry HMV Empire's all day event. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for Monday Nights but I saw openers, the young Stourbridge based band Supersonic Fuzz Gun followed by two cracking local groups, HEK & Concrete Fun House.
Having heaped so much praise on HEK with regard to their recorded work, it's been weighing heavily upon me that I hadn't managed to write a review of what I suspected was likely to be a superb live band.
Now I have, and I'm glad to report that I was right (I bet loads of you were ahead of me on this). A magnificent performance, one of my favourites of those I've seen in 2024 in fact.
Not only that, but despite the high quality tracks they've put out, they managed a set of entirely unreleased material: which says much about their artistic confidence & the depth of their repertoire given that all the songs were up there with the singles.
This group, as I've said before, are one of the local ones who've noticeably raised the bar in recent years. In my opinion, their potential is to stand up & be a force beyond the immediate area: they can hold their heads high among others operating at a national level. Since I was not the only one making this point directly to them afterwards, I don't consider this to be an opinion based on over-enthusiasm.
Their sound is based on high level musicianship gelling together: they combine perfectly & crucially look like they enjoy playing together, creating a unique sound, in which their influences meld into something original.
I look forwards to hearing these songs recorded, but in the meantime here's a couple of highlights of treats in store for you. Firstly, I was only posting the other day about how unusual it was to feature two flamenco tracks on ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Thirteen' when it an act of some spookiness, HEK included a song with a strong flamenco element: one of the pick of those I'd not heard before.
The other was the redemption of the old Wilde track "Wasted" (which we featured on HMLP 4). Written by Reiss, he has decided to add it to the HEK set, but in a twist which distinguishes it from the original, Liv now sings lead: to excellent effect. In addition, it morphs into their tribute (a great showcase for Josh) to one of their influences, a well known classic US rock band (I'm not going to spoil any surprise by saying which one: you need to go and see them play it) and it's now a most effective epic set closer.
Though I fervently hope that HEK will get gigs further abroad, they can be experienced live on the Saturday (21st) of Covtember 2024 at The Tin, the day after Concrete Fun House play the same event.
I reported on the latter back in October of last year when they debuted. In the past ten months, they've been working hard, despite the other commitments of the members and I'm advised by the band that recording sessions have yielded enough material for their debut album & the good news is that releases should be coming your way before much longer.
They have one new song its live premiere yesterday, but the chief talking point is perhaps how far they've come since I last heard them. With members of quite wildly disparate amounts of experience playing in a band, they've explored what they believe in as a unit & developed something of colossally wilful idiosyncrasy (which knowing the members is not really a surprise).
The songs are actually pretty much all about serious subjects, but again looking at the CVs of members, they share the characteristic of being in bands where playfulness, even on deep issues is the defining style. Therefore stage announcements regarding the lyrical targets tend to be quite helpful.
Beyond that, you experience a barrage of odd structures, bizarre riffs, bursts of startlingly atonal guitar, powerful, ranting vocals and multiple moments of the unexpected, yet it all works and is actually held together not just by general ability & because these elements are intentional & rehearsed, but because behind the less orthodox parts, the rhythm section is both super-tight and able to cope with what's demanded of it by the rest.
In one of those serendipitous occurrences which add spice to a reviewer's work, in a parallel to HEK's playing "Wasted", Concrete Fun House played the Year Without a Summer track "What Happened To The Caterpillars" (as they did on debut) but not just as a nod to the work of another project of a member (in this case Joe) but they announced that their version will be on their album.
You certainly would not mistake either band for each other in terms of sound, but they do share characteristics which I appreciate: originality, commitment to their art, truth in what they play & above all a sense of enjoying what they are doing: all of which I believe appeals to audiences even if they don't attempt (why should they?) to analyse what is that is making them enjoy what they may be listening to.
