Fleeing New York

So there’s this chick with the fingers on the bass, and this geezer with just the right amount of hair, a square-jaw and a Fender Jaguar - very nice. It’s Thursday night and one choppy guitar klang in, those assembled in the Bull & Gate are already having it. I’m thinking my next pint might be The End, so lets hold on the juice and see what else this trio has to offer. He’s got some great guitar hooks. She’s got a couple of fluttering bass licks. The indie strain is pretty intense but there are smiles all around – this is good. It feels like I might slip into this suit again.

Fleeing New York play a melodic set of muddy slews and bopping cuts. It’s punctuated by a display of elongated guitar tuning that allows vocalist/guitarist Russell the time to address his ever-growing audience. Despite his continued pleas, I begin to think “The crowd aint gonna move forward dude”. Of course I’m proved wrong, as slowly but surely people huddle forward to form a proper front row. The smiles get bigger and we are given ‘Hollywood Bowl’. A spunk-beat cum-shot of a tune that just plain rocks – with Russell's reference to Michael J. Fox’s guitar virtuosity in Back To The Future making tonight’s stand out track even more of a pleasure.

During the majority of the set the vocals switch between Russell’s drawl and the tuneful screams of bassist Emma. It's an interesting dynamic and creates the needed focus to drag their songs from indistinguishable guff to a decent stream of crafted tunes. ‘Scandinavia’, a relative slow burner, has a catchy chorus and a pumping lilt that is satisfying although not fully realised tonight. It’s all over pretty quickly, but Emma and Russell spit enough venom to secure the desire for a repeat viewing. It aint ‘Jonny B. Goode’, but it's Back to the Future III with a bullet.