Chris Wollard and The Ship Thieves / Drag The River / Milloy

Today is the first of two great shows at this small venue tucked away in the Leeds student area. Tomorrow is Dillinger Four, but tonight we have Hot Water Music's very own Chris Wollard with his own band the Ship Thieves, plus some great support.



Milloy are the loudest band of the night; influenced heavily by Hot Water Music. They only have a short set but don't let any of it go to waste, packing in around seven songs into thirty minutes. Focusing mainly on their last album 'Creating Problems Whilst Practising Solutions', there is the odd dip into old school Milloy with 'Spiders' ("For the ladies", singer Jim states). Jim's comedic comments run throughout the set, with words about the sound guy ("better than Trevor!" – the last sound engineer at the venue) and the power of lemonade for easing a Christmas party hangover...

The next band have just released a split with Chris Wollard And The Ship Thieves, and were billed to be headlining on the flyers, but take to the stage second. Normally Drag The River have five members, but here they are reduced to two - Chad Price & Jon Snodgrass – who perform their alternative country songs with great precision and the odd comedy inclusion.



I did not want to say there are similarities with Flight of The Conchords (tilt your head to the side and cut a bit of the hair and beards and well...) but the duo are funny between songs, but they differ as the songs are less funny and have strong lyrics about being drunk and, well, being drunk some more. 'Death Of The Life Of The Party' self explanatory, as are many other tracks that are mainly chosen by the audience. 'Modern Drunkard' is a popular choice, as is 'Hybrid Moments'.

Snodgrass is on electric guitar, which gives oomph to the tracks and the solos, where as Price is on Acoustic guitar duties, perfectly surrounding the duos pitch perfect harmonies. Forget the track 'Bad Country'; these guys are easily the most talented modern country rock band I have ever heard.



Chris Wollard And The Ship Thieves are described on the flyer for tonight's show as a mixture of Dinosaur Jr and the Lemonheads. I like already! Then they take to the stage and the sound is completely different to Wollard's past adventures in Hot Water Music and The Draft. Well I tell a lie, there are many guitar windings going off over some of the solos giving that difficult layered effect, but mainly this bands sound is country rock again, but leaning more to the rock side than the previous band. The band keep a steady momentum and the guitar does most of the talking helped along by Wollard's gruff vocals, which sound smokier (he is staying around the lower notes for these songs, showing his talent for changing his delivery).

From the beginning I love the sound of this band, from the acoustic tracks through to the country melodies, from 'All The Things You Know' to the pop punk of 'No Exception'. The sound is so multi layered but not too busy; and every songs seems to draw your attention more and more towards Wollard and friends. A band I will definitely see again, everyone wants Hot Water Music back (someone even shouted to them to play some!) but if this is what we get when they are solo; like Chuck Ragan's solo work, then there's no rush.

FUTURE GIGS

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