Wednesday, 19 April 2017

A View From The Back Of The Room: Joanovarc (Live Reviews Paul)

Joanovarc, Synteria & The Boom Sons: Fuel, Cardiff

Joanovarc, the Home Counties melodic rockers are being tipped for big things. They have been receiving a lot of exposure on digital radio including Planet Rock so at £5 for a ticket, a Friday night at a Fuel seemed a decent punt.

We missed opening band Flowerpot and arrived as local outfit The Boom Sons (7) were going through their paces. I saw this highly inventive three piece supporting Bigfoot last year and they are a decent outfit, their indie rock touching the right spots.

Main support band Syteria (6) were formed by current Girlschool guitarist Jackie Chambers. With their image very much in the stereotypical 'rock chick' Syteria delivered their routine, throwaway rock over the course of about 40 minutes. The band at least relaxed as their set went on, Chambers unsurprisingly confident from the start. Vocalist Julia appeared more confident when relieved of rhythm guitar duties and the Argentinian's voice become more relaxed as the band hit their stride. It is fair to say that the crowd had picked up slightly with some of the red blooded booze filled males wandering to the front to have a good look. A cover of The Ramones went down well and their songs are okay, just a little average.

Headliners Joanovarc (7) have received many plaudits for their melodic rock and last year's Ride Of Your Life was a very listenable release. Live the band adopts a quite strange image, with DMs and combat trousers mixed with lace bodysuits and some incredible Runaways haircuts. The band roared through a selection of tracks from their debut, including the enjoyable Dragons In The Sky and their breakthrough single Live Rock N Roll. A very enthusiastic reception helped the band increase in momentum with rhythm guitarist Laura Ozhall taking lead vocals for one tune. The band are led by sisters Shelley and Sam Walker and it was Shelley who did most of the talking in between numbers. She's a competent guitarist too whilst Sam proved she could replicate her vocal performance live.

A rather limp cover of Iggy's Wild One coincided with the doors being opened for free admission as the venue suddenly quadrupled in numbers. The final couple of numbers included a clear Reef riff and a ringer for Crosstown Traffic before we made for the door and the cold drizzle of Cardiff on Good Friday. It would be good to see Joanovarc in a different setting as Fuel isn't always the most conducive. A reasonable evening and for the admission price certainly value for money.

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