Tuesday 23 December 2014

Live Review: Jeronimo and Bones Garage @ Radio EPGB, Tel Aviv [21st December 2014]

Tonight, I have come to one of Tel Aviv's more trendy "nightclub" type music venues, Radio EPGB. I have been here before for a couple of shows and there tends to be a mix of locals who come in for the bar's ambience and showgoers coming especially for the bands. Tonight is the same sort of thing. As soon as I pass the bar, I can tell that the American Taglit crew is in. A whole group of American girls telling the Israeli barmen how much they love Tel Aviv, despite having only been here for 5 hours.

Jeronimo



After a bit of a wait, young rock band Jeronimo take the stage. For those of you who follow my blog, you may have read a previous review of this band when they headlined at Koro. Despite impressing me and the handful of other onlookers that stayed to watch them that night, it was a disappointing night for them. The other acts they watched and enjoyed left without even apologising. I think we can all agree that's not on! Even if I have to leave early for whatever reason when performing or watching a show, I would explain why to the acts I was missing and try and see them at another show. I am here seeing them again because they are a good band and deserve the support.
There are luckily a few more people here tonight, not just the Americans surrounding the bar. Starting off their set with the slightly new wave sounding Doubt, there are a few people actually gathered paying attention and some of them were even dancing a little bit. As time goes on, more people are actively watching them and the venue itself fills up a bit more. We are treated to an array of fairly heavy tracks tonight including old skool rock number Scratch, groovy 'new' track Fast Walker and the full throttle rock track Aircraft Boneyard. The latter 2 both have dynamics within the song which help show the band's song structure abilities and that they're not just your average boring rock band. Frenzied track Geronimo doesn't quite get the reaction it should; a lot of people just standing around when they should at least be jumping or nodding their heads.
The band were playing well. Bassist Eilon didn't always sound precisely on point but he was moving about a fair bit. When a musician is physically involved in the performance, you have to allow the odd bum note or being out of time. Guitarists/vocalists Yonatan's and Auriya's shared vocals help set them apart from most other rock bands due to the difference in tones. Auriya has quite a British new wave sounding, raw vocal where Yonatam has a nice clean rock tone. Drummer Itamar sounded pretty flawless and kept the band together; played a few epic big finishes. Hopefully everyone here tonight enjoyed their set but I have been getting the feeling that a majority of people here tonight are here for the next band.
4/5

Bones Garage


Having not done any prior research on Bones Garage, I was surprised by the beginning of their set for 2 reasons. Opener A.D.D. starts with dreamy guitars and a pounding rhythm that eventually picks up the pace; has that 65daysofstatic vibe. Had a really nice guitar melody. Then out of nowhere, this girl arrives on stage and starts singing. I didn't see anyone else on stage so I assumed one one of the guitarists was going to sing. Ariel is the band's front woman and as soon as she starts we are treated by quite a low, mature voice coming from someone looking quite a lot younger than the voice suggests. It has an almost Nico (Velvet Underground) quality about it. At first, I was a little bit put off by her accent....but it grew on me. As the song went on, it grew into something more than just dreamy indie. Drummer Dor was banging out some trippy dnb type beats. Those familiar with my blog or who know me personally will know that I'm a bit of a sucker for these sort of beats. Anything danceable gets my vote. It was a great opening track, as my and most probably everyone else's attention was grabbed.



The rest of their set is full of dreamy guitars with sweet and catchy melodies, the odd noisy guitar effects, pretty dual vocals and moody vibes. They have a bit of an 80s sound with a hint of that of...well...more modern bands who are heavily influenced by the 80s. There are some catchy songs such as Equals, Losing Myself and Seasons Breaks which have you humming (if not singing) along. Stand out track has to be the song which sounds almost "horror punk" but softer....which is funny because it turns out to actually be called Horror Show. There are some beautiful vocal harmonies between singer Ariel, guitarist Edan and, although I couldn't see him, the magical extra voice coming from drummer Dor. A singing drummer...that's another plus!
The band did have a full house but it is not entirely clear if everybody there REALLY understood the band. I was pleasantly surprised by the band's mixture of styles. As interesting as the vocals were, it did seem a little off key at times. I did see Ariel cough a few times, so she may have not been on top form tonight. I hope to see them again on a bigger stage where they can have a bit more movement and where I can see the whole band.
3.5/5

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