aaamusic | On 16, Apr 2012

Thursday 12th April 2012

Exit Calm are a moody brand of Jesus of Mary Chain noisy indie rock mixed with grunge and a Manchester 90’s feel that has been brought to the market before by bands such as Puressence. They have great off beat drumming inspired by the Beatles and technical problems tonight with the bass player Simon Lindley is getting rather annoyed about and keeps slamming his bass into things. They really do a good job of working through these problems and they blend them into ambient noise induced instrumentals which are a real pleasure to listen to, they have a laid back feeling that makes you think of Oxford band Ride. I really like the music they produced tonight and it really does credit to the CD.

★★★★★
Exit Calm – Setlist
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Rapture
Fiction
When we Ride
Albion
Glass Houses
Hearts and Minds

Marion are in the best form they have been in for a long time and singer Jamie Harding looks great, far better than the last time I saw the band at Kings College where he looked like a ghost like skeleton and not like his past self. They open with ‘Fallen Through’ of the album ‘This world and Body’ and always has been one of my favourite songs of their back catelogue and is a great opening song to start tonight procedures with. They also play quite a few other songs from the same album during the set plus new songs ‘Hurricane’ and ‘The biggest painkiller of All’ which are back on a really high standard and as good as the rest of the bands material. Jamie keeps handing his expensive vodka to the front row of the crowd getting everyone truly wasted while Phil Cunningham longtime guitarist in the band and Tony Grantham original guitarist in the band go crazy on the guitar either side of them. Marion are bringing out the performance of their lives to match the performance at the Pheonix Festival all thou’s years ago. Tonight Jamie is dressed in red and black and looks swarve as he minces round the stage with presence this is the only way to see Marion in a venue of die hard fans who even fight over the setlist at the end. They end with the amazing ‘Sleep’ which sounds picture perfect tonight with an amazing harmonica solo, this is one of the best gigs I have seen in a longtime and makes me feel like I am fourteen again when I first got into the band. As a kid Jamie was my hero and the way he performs tonight I can see why, this is a band back at their best.

Marion – Setlist
——————–
Fallen Through
I Stopped Dancing
Hurricane
Sparkle
Take my Time
Time
I won’t Pretend
Violent Men
Vanessa
Let’s all go Together
Biggest Painkiller
The Collector
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The only Way
Vines
Sleep

★★★★★

Author: Daniel Cairns