First visit to Outpost for me and it’s a nice little venue. Front of house is a bar (with a decent selection of craft beers if that’s your Thing) and the gig room is at the back. My heart sank a little as the stage is just another bit of the floor; note to self: wear platform boots next time!  

The Dead King Company started the night off for us, and they are a young trio who play stripped back indie rock. The drummer was a bit manic and they played well, with a little banter between songs. Apparently they have an album in the pipeline and I think most of the set will be on that when it eventually surfaces.  At first I think it's kind of blues but not blues at the same time, and there are some technical issues with the bass that don't help. It's quirky, a bit like Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac crossed with Joy Division or maybe Nirvana crossed with REM. Despite the bass issues it’s OK, I tap a toe or two and it’s a good start to the night. It's their last gig with the current bass player which is a shame because once everything comes together it's quite enjoyable. 

Second band up are called Penny Fade and they're a trio who do late 60s-influenced fuzzy blues. The vibe is flared jeans, flowerpot hats and complicated riffs. There’s a definite Hendrix influence and musically they are very good indeed. Unfortunately (for them) this is not my favourite genre and I do find my attention wandering a bit, especially during a long and slightly rambling instrumental at the end of the set. The vocals are quite nice but there’s not really any audience interaction between songs – that might be something they could work on perhaps. Tuning is important but so is building a rapport with your crowd! Tonight you’re at a small venue and a bunch of your mates are here to support you, but as you move on to bigger and better things you will need to get your audience onside and keep them there. They have the advantage of youth here though, and I’m sure the stagecraft will come with experience. The songs are all original and not too derivative, they may have the retro vibe but they bring a young, modern twist to it. I can’t fault them on performance even though it wasn’t really to my taste.  

Headliners tonight are Silveroller. Although they are a relatively new band they do have a little bit of history behind them if you know your Liverpool scene. Singer Jonny was originally in Black Cat Bones (who went on to become Revival Black after he left) and guitarist Aaron Keylock, despite his youth, is a bit of a Name on the blues scene. I have seen him play at a couple of festivals in the past, and for a while it seemed he was the Next Big Thing. The musical vibe jumps forward a decade as they take to the stage – if Penny Fade were inspired by the 60s then Silveroller are firmly and proudly rooted in the mid-70s. A lot of this is down to their keyboard player, who was belting out some great Jon-Lord-inspired Hammond parts, and even pulled out a saxophone in a couple of places in the set. He was the hero of the night for me! The influences appear to be Deep Purple, early Whitesnake and the Rolling Stones, smattered with a little Free and performed with vigour and verve. The keyboards really fill the sound out and Jonny has morphed from an Axl Rose wannabe into a snake-hipped Jagger. He occasionally gets out a harmonica for a bit of extra blues street cred! The songs are catchy, and definitely moving in a more rock direction. There's a song that particularly stands out to me called ‘Start Walking’ where actually it's more about strutting and swaggering. The look is skinny blokes in flares with unkempt hair, and it suits the music and the mood nicely. It's groovy and infectious and they're doing it really well. A sing-along song called ‘Shine On Me’ was nice which reminds me an awful lot in places of Blackpool’s Takeaway Thieves; both have a blues-rock base but with a bit of extra grit and sleaze thrown in.

I muse that the songs are upbeat and happy, and wonder if cheerful blues will become a new genre of music now? If it does, it will be spearheaded by Silveroller!  The final song is a Free cover ‘Walk In My Shadow’ and they do it really well. Not everybody can live up to a Rogers/Kossof song and make it their own but these lads managed it perfectly. All in all it was a nice little gig in a nice little venue and I look forward to seeing where Aaron and Jonny and the rest of the boys can take this band, there was a lot of potential going on on that tiny stage tonight. 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Silveroller, Penny fade, The Dead King Company