The View From The Back Of The Room: Vola, Voyager & Four Stroke Baron (Live Review By Dean Palmer)

Vola, Voyager & Four Stroke Baron, The Fleece, Bristol 

Out of body experiences seldom come along very often, but when two come along in one night (and don’t involve violence-driven unconsciousness or a level of intoxicants that could kill a water buffalo) you know you’ve visited somewhere special.

So, off to The Fleece I did toddle on a Tuesday evening for a night of varied contemporary prog goodness. Truth be told the last few visits I have made to this venue the sound has been a little bit empty and without any true depth, it seems that whomever was doing the sound tonight was having no such issues as the audio quality for all three bands was absolute sonic perfection where every instrument or vocal cut through in just the right amounts.

First up was Four Stroke Baron (7), a USA 3-piece whom this was my first live experience of but I genuinely hope it won’t be my last. A very, very interesting sound where they somehow merge a post-hardcore proggy sound together with elements of 80s synth-goth and more vocal and musical effects than you can shake a very large stick at. By the end of their set it genuinely seemed like half the crowd (which was plentiful, I’ve not seen the Fleece this full in years) were fully in a hallucinogenic trance. Very much enjoyed, looking forward to doing so again.

Speaking of ‘looking forward to’, up next were Voyager (10) whom I have been looking forward to seeing for a very, very long time as each time the Aussie 5-piece find their way over here I am stuck doing something else entirely. Not tonight for me, or anybody else crammed into the venue as it very, very apparent that anticipation for the main support is as high as it is the headliner. Voyager, thankfully, do not disappoint in the slightest, delivering a perfectly executed slab of their DiscoProg sound with smiles on their faces and a neon stage show that would fit perfectly within the realms of Vice City, but with a far better soundtrack. The 8-song set includes their biggest hitters (including their attempted Eurovision entry Dreamer) and is, frankly, audio perfection. Their set ends with a brilliantly executed Ascension which is perfectly apt as the audience genuinely feels like it has done so when all is said and done.

The Auralgasm is far from complete however as tonight’s headliner Vola (10) make their way onto the stage to a level of crowd reception and excitement that most prog-bands can only dream of. I last saw the band supporting one Devin Townsend at the Royal Albert Hall over the summer, so the Fleece had one heck of a sound system to compete with and, incredibly, it managed it admirably as the entire set sounded huge yet perfectly balanced throughout. The set opened with 24 Light Years which is the perfect opener for the band (evidenced by the fact it has been their set opener since the day it was released) and it did not take long for the nu-prog wave of sheer musical indulgence to wash over the crowd, entirely demonstrated by the sea of faces throughout the venue who truly looked in a (very, very happy) trance for the next hour + of musical brilliance.

Normally this is where I would pick out some musical highlights but in truth every single track was perfectly delivered so as they worked through Napalm, These Black Claws (featuring a very well included sample of SHAHMEN for the magnificent rap break) and into the finale of Straight Lines (prior to an encore of Whaler and Inside Your Fur) there were no highlights to truly pick out except for the entire set, which was presented in such a perfect way (with some VERY impressive stage-light visuals for the venue in question) that I can almost guarantee that the next time we see Vola(and indeed, all 3 of these bands) they will be in larger venues.

If you have to endure a Tuesday night in any sense then I recommend doing it this way, because this was one of the finest nights of live music that any set of ears could enjoy.