The Dead Certs
Live at Rio's (Sweeney Todds) on Wednesday, 19th September 2007
I just made it to Rio's in time to catch Cursed Diamond doing a pretty decent a cover of "Fell In Love With A Girl" for their final song. In the brief interlude I spoke briefly with Glenn (vocals) from Kharma 45 at the bar prior to their set; he was upbeat about their summer at the festivals and explained that they now touring 5 regions in 5 months (5x5 Tour) and are releasing 5 regional versions of "Come On" on 12" prior to the album release in February.
I first saw Kharma 45 in the upstairs room of Rio's in June soon after hearing their debut single "Where's Your Spirit Man", and to be honest I'm a little surprised that they haven't had the meteoric rise I expected. Admirably they allotted to play a support slot between the two local bands, wasting no time in getting set up and taking full advantage of the crowd the supports had drawn, playing to around 75 people.
They opened up with a call to arms, or at least the dance-floor, and tour single "Come On". They only played 6 songs in a little under half an hour which was a little short, but what they lacked in quantity they made up with quality. Stepping things up in increments they went on to play "Addicted", the anthemic "Where's Your Spirit Man", "Shakespeare", "Political Soul" and finished with the all out dance tune "Ecstasy". Glenn introduced each song with a few words about the meaning of each, which was a nice touch, and the band sounded really tight giving the impression of being at a much grander venue, hopefully something they'll be doing very soon.
I stayed to see The Dead Certs whose set included The Fratellis "Creeping Up The Backstairs" as well as The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" both of which were pretty good. The token mid-set slow song didn't really suit the vocal style but "Sunday", "Walk Away" and set closer "Vintage", that culminated in a mass-stage invasion leaving few people on the dance-floor, were real highlights.
