Pablo reset the sentiments

The state of current hard and heavy music couldn’t be more confusing: on one hand you have all the shock-sincerity of Marilyn Manson, the corpo-punkers (too numerous to list), the pop-rappers (Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park), struggling veteran nu-metallists such as Korn and Deftones, plus a Goth/pop-rock of Evanescence… And, Brits that simply appear to fall further behind.

But then, few doors from the Forum in Kentish Town there is a pub-venue Bull & Gate that is a host to Pablo tonight. This London-based trio has earned a reputation for being the loudest since Motorhead and/or AC/DC. In defiance of the famous ‘Spinal Tap’ film’s knob going to ‘11’, Pablo may have found the setting ‘12’! It is true, the gig’s volume eradicate your pain, erases all memories of anything but here’n’now in about 40 minutes flat!

Pablo are direct, loud and damn fine rockers. This entity has a dual identity, one you’ll find on their debut album, ‘The Story Of Love And Hate’, due out in mid-June, and the aggressive, confrontational, engaging and ‘Mr Def Hyde’ live. Songs on the album display an array of influences that end up sounding heavy, psychedelic, complex but are balanced by catchy, melodic choruses and vocals that touch more than a mere HM nerve.

Live, it is raw, dirty, ear-bleeding, pounding the last ounce of sanity of these culturally deprived bodies… ‘Y Baron’, the album’s heavy-psyche-funky opening track, ‘Y Baron’, turns into this granite boulder that lands on your brainbox and you can only unconditionally surrender your senses. ‘Hola Señoritas’ (also sprayed across a couple of Marshall amps) deals with one of the boys’ main themes, babes and trouble with them, as the following (album) song attests to: ‘You F**ked A Friend Of Mine’! Their ‘Ornithology’ is naturally about watching the mini-skirted variety.

It is also great to see bassist having as many pedals as his six-stringed leader, enabling him to drop a wider range of magnificent tones rather than merely keep the rhythm. That duty is in the hands of a thundering drummie, John Russell, whom we happened to meet before and after the show. An amiable man but then he is, as the rest of his colleagues, Scottish: vocalist/guitarist Paul Fyfe and bassist Iain Slater.

The band’s professed influences are Kiss, AC/DC, The Ramones, Bootsy Collins, Joe Meek (the late 1960s pop maestro), Nirvana, Black Sabbath, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd; thus, you can’t expect music to be one-dimensional and down-with-the-dogs rocking is enriched with cuts such as bluesy-rocker ‘Lofepramine’ and grunge-echoing title track. There is more anger live, more energy, more noise, more of everything. Furious, violently sounding, truly soul-invasive.

Fyfe is a solid vocalist but a tad reluctant onstage, he doesn’t appear to let go of his ‘live’ inhibitions, there is hardly any banter, this trio is here for music. Following dress-down fashion of The Ramones, these three look rather ready to take anyone on. So, when the show ends, it is it, no encores, no room for the showbiz clichés. If you gotta a statement to make, do it and don’t pish about the chords!

Or, as Fyfe puts it, rather mordantly, “… We don’t want to prolong the audiences misery.” The fact is that misery loves company but, in this case, the noun should be replaced with – Victory cocktail*!

Still, the bottom‘s up line is you don’t need to get drunk on ‘The Pablos’, the band makes you intoxicated! Sort of a very gratifying ‘cheap-date’…
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* ‘The Pablo’ cocktail – a recipe from The Notting Hill Arts Club Bar Manager, Dominik Proisser: 25ml Absinthe, 25ml Cointreau, 25 ml Syrup De Grenadine, 25ml Lemon and Line Juice. Shake with ice, top with Cranberry and Lemonade, Squeeze of lime… (ROCK!)