Sunday 29 April 2012

Shoot the Moon

No show for me last night as I had a rare Saturday night out with some friends. What is even more rare is that I was out on Friday night too. Two nights in a row, at my age; disgraceful! On Friday I went to see The Beat (Ranking Roger's version; my funds don't extend to jetting across the Atlantic to see Dave Wakeling.) I've seen Roger & Ranking Junior before a couple of times and they never fail to deliver. Last night was no exception and a good-natured Exeter Phoenix crowd went home happy.

I love seeing bands like The Beat and hearing tunes that have become like old friends but you can't beat discovering something new. That's why I love support acts. Admittedly some support acts are pretty dire, in which case you can always retire to the bar, or, if you're old and knackered like me, just find somewhere to have a nice sit down. Thankfully last night the support act were Shoot the Moon. I've seen them once before and was very impressed but this time they were quite simply superb. They played a set of original tunes that was highly energetic, musically tight and above all huge fun. Featuring three guitars (including the bounciest bassist I've seen in as long time), trumpet, sax & drums they combined frantic guitar-driven energy with big-bollocks brass & vocals strong enough to hold up well even on the Phoenix's less-than-state-of-the-art PA. I certainly won't be waiting for them to come to Exeter again to see them again, this is band well worth a trip up the M5 to see again.

I was impressed enough with their performance to treat myself to their two CDs in the break between their set and The Beat coming on (fiver each - pretty damn reasonable in my opinion!) In hindsight this was a mistake, not because the CDs aren't good - they're brilliant. The mistake was in spending the rest of the evening attempting to dance to The Beat with two CDs stuffed in my jeans pocket resulting in the CD cases periodically prodding me in the sweetmeats. My dancing is quite shit enough without any added handicap. However, despite having assaulted my love-plums I'm glad I bought them, just not too happy with my timing. The two CDs I bought are their 2010 début EP Get in the Van and this year's Skarocka. Expect to hear a track from each on my next SFR show but if you can't wait that long I'd happily recommend getting the CDs or downloads from their bandcamp page - you won't regret it!

Get in the Van EP
1: What a Beautiful Day to Lose Everything
2: Get Out While You Can
3: I Can't Make You
4: Get in the Van





Skarocka EP
1: The Eye
2: In Tongues
3: Doghouse
4: Floating Aaway
5: Loose Change






2 comments:

  1. We love shoot the moon, we discovered them at Donyatt when they were supporting Toploader, and I have since seen them twice in one of the pubs in Chard, my daughter has seen them three times, we always look forward to them appearing near us and we have tickets already to see them support Bad Manners in June, again at the Donyatt Arena, they are fab. We follow them on facebook and they always reply to us :) great bunch of lads

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I was really impressed with them and have played the CD's a lot. They deserve to succeed and to enjoy themselves along the way!

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