May 8, 2022

Tablefox – Anthology Lounge, 6 May 2022: Concert Review

Tablefox take to the stage at the Lounge and it’s a welcome noise attack as they power through opening songs Hold Fire and Nothing Ever Changes. Guitar a sonic scythe through the top of the skull. Single stroke sustained strums like Johnny Ramone. The drums are climbing over the top.

The vocals are buried a little in the mix but gets rectified with a cover of James Reyne’s Reckless. Clinton Bell is the lead singer and has a powerful Rock tenor voice, putting him in similar company with other powerhouse Aussie Rock acts. We’re told he’s playing bass guitar for the first time on stage, and it rumbles like deep thunder. From somewhere is produced a foghorn sound effect.

The rest of the Auckland four-piece band are; Chris Dickinson guitar, Matt Carson lead guitar and Henrik Ryler drums.

Dickinson tells me of the difficult times for themselves over the last two years and the pressure release that this much-delayed show has brought. This is the celebration of their third album Battles, out last July with most of the songs released as singles including a number one in the New Zealand Rock charts for Keep Them Guessing.

Amasze

Amasze take the opening slot tonight and we get a taste the future of Popular music. These are five young junior high school kids from Albany who look like they’ve been dragged by older siblings to the show so they don’t have to be babysat at home.

But they are with their manager and music teacher, who does look like older sister. On stage, they are beaming with energy and don’t look overawed at all.

They are Sam Redgrove vocals, Aaron Ko guitar, Aryan Thakkar guitar, Zac Saunders bass and Elliott Borland drums. All are fourteen except Redgrove who is fifteen.

They showcase their original song Soar On, which won the Peace Song award last year for Play It Strange. Which is the project nurturing and identifying young talented musicians for about the last ten years in this country, with Neil Finn and Mike Chunn as prime movers.

A delightful little song which has the Folk Rock sound of prime Buffalo Springfield, let’s say reminiscent of Expecting to Fly. They have the lyric Better if you spread your wings and fly.

Listen to the song on Bandcamp to hear the singer, who sounds like Buddy Holly on two songs that he recorded at age thirteen. Tonight, he cannot compete with the sound mix, which is dominated by the drums.

All four songs are originals. They play melodic, economic Power Pop. On the last tune Flowers and Thorns, the drummer switches to a cajon on a rhythm-dominated workout with some tasty Blues guitar lead licks.

A lot of promise and I expect we will be hearing from them in the course of the decade.

Tablefox

These songs had their genesis prior to the pandemic. They also encompass the depression and difficulty of those times and on stage tonight it is good old Rock rage and fury honed down and focused like an intense and cleansing laser burn.

Burning Bridges and Time are a bit brutal and anthemic. Rhythm dominates and the music is lean and stripped back. Simple and effective. The singer is rising to the challenge of volume, and since he’s playing a bass, he reminds me briefly of Lemmy from Motorhead, with a higher voice.

Title track Battles is a wall of sound as the battle lines are drawn. Banishing negativity with spare lines, and nice changes of tone with slower passages.

Light in the Darkness starts with a Folk-Rock ringing guitar straight from the early Byrds (possibly the Searchers too). A highlight for the singer tonight before the others slam back in and take it out with Power Pop energy.

Ghostlines is a lament. Just a chiming rhythm guitar and voice. When I’m in town/ I slip into memories when you’re around/ Ghostlines take their toll.

Keep Them Guessing is the triumph on the Rock charts. A tremolo guitar similar to the Smith’s How Soon Is Now introduces the song which then borrows some of the inspirational Pop tones of Th’Dudes and generally rocks out with nice high-tone lead guitar riffs.

The spirit of triumph after the battle is conveyed with a cover of David Bowie’s Heroes.

They finish with cymbal crashes introducing a rousing Something Better. Is there something better?

It is both a question and a statement of intent from Tablefox who laid down a show of defiant and focused primal Rock music for their audience, and we’re grateful for that.

Rev Orange Peel

Click any image to view a full gallery from each band. All photos by Leoni Moreland