Band of Skulls, the biggest thing out of Southampton since the Titanic, except this trio haven’t sunk and have the ammunition to blast an iceberg right out of the water. Four albums strong with a fifth just on the horizon, the band are now joined by Whigs/Eagles of Death Metal powerhouse drummer and Nashville resident, Julian Dorio.
Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson have now a rich catalogue of killer tunes to choose from and choose well they do. It’s quite a treat to see a band who you would normally be expecting to see in a sell out show up the hill at the O2 instead playing underground at the Cookie and they seem to really enjoy it, never once taking a wrong turn in sauna like conditions.
They open with ‘Sweet/Sour‘ and play a good mix of songs across all four albums, choosing to hold fire on any tunes from the next outing. I don’t think there was even one weak spot in the whole set, with mostly the giant riffs of songs such as ‘Himalayan‘, ‘Asleep at the Wheel‘ and ‘Black Magic‘, ‘Devil Takes Care‘ and ‘Nightmares anchored and slowed by the lovely ‘Cold Fame‘. Perhaps though the biggest cheers of the night were saved for ‘You’re Not Pretty‘ and ‘Hoochie Coochie‘.
As always with the Cookie the sound was spot on. The evening was part of Independent Small Venue Week, sponsored by Jägermeister, who left little gifts around the venue. With the entrance price of just a tenner, this was surely one of the bargains of the year.
Everyone in the sell out crowd seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the show. Even the berk who threw a plastic bottle, however this was shielded from the band by the buffer of my head. Unfortunately I won’t find the culprit to return his property to him in a very safe place. Some bands of this calibre would have disappeared up their own backsides by now; four albums is quite possibly enough to have a bowl of Smarties on the rider with all the brown ones removed. Band of Skulls have remained humble and seem to be really enjoying themselves in a smaller room again. I grabbed a few words with them whilst doing the pictures pre-show, I can’t really find a bad word for them.
It’s quite possible they could take off into the stratosphere and be playing the arenas, so seeing them at the Cookie could be one of those “I Was There” moments.
I enjoyed tonight’s support MUX from East London. As with a lot of current bands, they are a duo consisting of keyboards/vocals and Guitar/keyboards, but manage to do the job of a small orchestra and have some great songs, worth keeping an eye on and I think everyone went home happy – I even discovered a great Chinese takeaway a few doors from the venue!
Photo Credit: Paul Reno