Black Water County rock The Old Fire Station Bournemouth heading a triple bill of local talent

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REVIEW BY PHIL MIDDLETON PHOTOS BY SIMON KIDD

A tremendous evening showcasing some of the best and most diverse talent from the South Coast area.

First off are Mischa and His Merry Men who are an ethical musicians collective counting over forty members, a mere ten or eleven of them are gracing the stage tonight. The band is laudably ethically driven, focusing on charity and worthwhile causes. Despite the number of musicians on stage, the sound is tight and bouncy, the band members are together, enthusiastic, and energetic. ‘Save Our Souls’ is a crowd favourite and ‘The Circus’ has the feel of an old-time big top show, Mischa telling us that the video for this was shot at Chaplin’s locally. There’s a ska-like feel to some tracks reminiscent of Madness and ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ is suitably upbeat to please the punters.

Four-piece locals The Bottom Line are up next, channelling the spirit of pop-punk forcefully and encouraging the crowd to “jump, jump!” at every opportunity. The band take full advantage of the space on stage and bounces around, seemingly having an endless amount of energy and making full use of the foldbacks to stand on and leap from. They’re tight with good vocal harmonies, ‘Long Time Coming’ uses some good dynamics and ‘Fake Love’ from their recent ‘Here We Go Again’ EP has the crowd singing along and leaping about and ‘R.I.P.’ from the same EP rocks well. There’s time for a spot of stage diving during ‘Broke’ and a cool exchange of guitar picks mid-air. With their distorted sound, energy, catchy choruses and vocal harmonies, these guys have nailed the punk-pop genre, if you’re into Offspring, Blink etc. this is the band for you. I’d like to have heard more of the bass which appeared too low in the mix.

Headliners and established festival favourite Black Water County are ushered onto stage to the sound of the White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ with the crowd chanting “Oh – Black – Water – County” to the main riff.

BWC are here tonight for their album release show, ‘The Only Life Worth Living’ Their new album and opener ‘The Only Life Worth Living’ is breathtaking in its speed and vitality. The album represents an evolution for the band with more thoughtful lyrical content while maintaining the energy that they have become renowned for.

‘Here We Are Again’ has a nice vocal interplay between Tim Harris and Shannon Byrom. Much to the amusement of the band, there’s a false start to ‘Escape’ – “two songs starting the same.”. Once restarted the track rocks along with Bryom’s trademark tin whistle taking the lead between vocals. ‘Questions’ has impressive dynamics and tempo changes and ahead of ‘Before Things Get Worse’ the crowd is parted left “like the red sea” and right for the brass section to arrive and take their places on the stage. They add another dimension to the BWC sound filling it out behind the guitar and whistle. ‘Second Guessing’ is more ballad-like with a punctuated beat building to a crescendo at completion. The new album completes with ‘Limelight’ about “burning the candle at both ends”.

As well-received as the album has been, the band take it to another level as they delve into their back catalogue for the second part of the gig, the crowd jumping around like crazy and singing along throughout. ‘Living and Giving’ is up first with its huge sing-along refrain, ‘Darkest Days’ from the ‘Comedies and Tragedies’ album follows with nicely strummed guitar before the rest of the band enters and pick the pace up. Introduced as “our big noisy fast one” ‘Start Something New’ off their 2017 album ‘Taking Chances’ keeps the frenetic pace up and plenty of audience participation. The ever-popular ‘Rise and Fall’ is greeted by a massive cheer from the assembled and then they launch into le ‘One More Beer Won’t Hurt’ which seems to strike a chord with the fans, initiating more leaping around. Their finale is ‘Under Skies of Black and Blue’ with its fast-paced riffing and picking leading into ‘Runaway’.

And naturally, there’s time for one more track in the encore, the band paying tribute to Shane MacGowan and the influence of the Pogues upon the band. Of course, it’s their most popular, and fitting for the time of year – ‘Fairytale of New York’ with a great distorted guitar sound and great harmonies in the chorus and doubling up the beat in their style. What a way to finish an awesome gig. BWC has defined the folk-punk genre, and surely there must be a live album planned to capture the energy and vitality of the band in a live setting.

Black Water County was:

Shannon Byrom – Vocals/Tin Whistle

Tim Harris – Vocals/Bass

Bradley Clarke – Guitar/Vocals

Gavin Coles – Mandolin/Banjo/Vocals

Ollie Beaton – Drums

Russ Scagell – Guitar

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