Live Review : Dirty Sound Magnet + Daxx & Roxane + Cosmic Mother @ The Live Rooms, Chester on December 11th 2021

This is a co-headline tour, but it seems that although they get similar set times Dirty Sound Magnet are scheduled to go on last tonight which surprises me a little as I thought Daxx & Roxane were the more well-known of the two. However, that might just be because they are the ones I’ve heard of and seen before.

I also got it wrong about the support. Cosmic Mother – hippies right? Dreads and paisley and beads? Nope. They are actually a 90s indie-type band. Very Manchest-or. The sound is in the vein of the Stone Roses, and they are good at it. It’s not really my thing, but it sounded pretty good. Oh, and one last note, I thought the bass player was one of the best technical players I’ve ever seen. His sound got a little lost in the overall sound with them being a 3-piece outfit, but watching his fingers and hearing what I could in the mix – yeah. Kudos to him, he’s excellent.

Daxx & Roxane are a band I’ve seen a couple of times before and always enjoyed. They are Swiss (although now based in London), and offer us a classic blues-based rock sound. It’s easy to listen to without being easy listening. It’s stompy, and I am not surprised to see regular episodes of synchronised headbanging going on. There are catchy choruses and happy riffs, and we the crowd are a pack of nodding dogs, tipping our heads in unison and appreciation. Lead guitarist Cal is possibly one of the most un-rock’n’roll ever with his short haircut and smiley socks, but boy he can play. He’s also a gurner so every note squeezed out is accompanied by a guitar face moment, much to my amusement. I didn’t catch many song titles, but I know they did one that started slow and bluesy (with a hint of Gary Moore) and then flirted with the boundaries of prog. I was wondering if they might yodel too, but thankfully they didn’t! They also had one that had all of the power chords, all of the time. I didn’t get chance to pick a CD up from them on the night so I’ve ordered one online just so I can find out what that song actually was. They also threw in a cracking cover of a song I’ve not heard for years, Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal”. This was the title track for an animated movie back in the 80s, and as Sammy is one of my personal favourite artists ever I may have bounced along to that with a great deal of enthusiasm! There was another cover, Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, which romped along in a funky rocky kind of way. I also caught the title of one of their own songs that I liked a lot – “Lost In Love” was a powerful blues rock track that put me in mind of early Whitesnake. Infectious and happy. The band gave it their all despite the crowd being somewhat sparse. It was a truly excellent set and I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon.

Dirty Sound Magnet were a new band to me, and the only way I think I can adequately describe them is to say they were an experience. I’d nipped to the loo before they came on and when I came out it was to be faced with a wall of random sounds. Squeaks and wails and synthesised noises abounded, it took me a while to realise that this was actually the band playing an instrumental track and not just tuning up or doing some kind of noise test. It was all a bit Hawkwind, and I don’t like Hawkwind. It’s OK though, because the next song started off folky and then changed time several times in just a couple of minutes. It reminded me of Rush, and I don’t like Rush. Ah. Houston, we may have a problem. Technically they are brilliant, very sharp, very precise, but it’s all a bit too much for me. It’s the sort of music that teenage lads make in their bedrooms when they think they too could shag as many women as Lemmy one day. There is a small line of old blokes at the front doing air guitar, but all the women have gone to the back to drink gin and wait for it to be over. We then reach the part of the set where the bass player makes noises like Yoko Ono, and I have to leave. Don’t get me wrong, this is a band who are really good at what they do and if weird self-indulgent experimental wankery is your bag you’ll love them. It’s not mine though, so I went home.