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| Donald Spence - Vocals |
California
quintet, Versus The World, have just concluded their tour of the UK and EU and
we were in the front row to soak up some of that west-coast summer punk rock.
It was glorious.
Punk Rock has always
been, and always will be, a staple part of our musical diets. For decades we
have turned to the US west-coast for the unsurpassed and rawest form of
Punk-Rock and Versus The World are right up there with the best of them.
We caught up with them
at Camden’s legendary Underworld and, you guessed it, we forced them to answer
some questions from the Louder Now Grab Bag, and you can read all about that
here.
They burst onto the
iconic stage with The Santa Margarita, the
opening track from their new album Homesick/Roadsick
(released on June 23rd 2015) and all of a sudden we were at a
classic rock show!
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| Bryan Charlson - Drums |
The album is a
time-warp of an experience, flying us back to the good ol’ noughties
instrumentally and then dragging us back to the present with more despondent
lyrics. Live, however, Versus The World are old school punk-rock through and
through, even with those powerful lyrics.
And those lyrics…Donald
Spence’s vocals are perfect, and he really brings it on stage. He has a
well-rounded vocal range, hitting those high notes with ease on stage (and when
he’s getting down and sweaty in the pit) and completely eradicating the nasal
trademark that can sometimes, irritatingly, go hand in hand with the genre that
he is a pillar of.
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| Stage too small? No problem... |
There is no better
example of all of this then in The Black
Ocean (our favourite Versus The World track) which was followed up live by She Sang The Blues which, as Spence
announces on stage, was written for his Mum.
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| Tony Caraffa - Guitar |
But those vocals are
just the sweet cherry on top of the cake whose recipe has been passed down
through generations. Distortion, wah pedals, power chords, it’s all rudimentary
but it works and as the quintet launch into A
Sight for Sore Eyes you know they’re capable of producing their own
anthems.
Title track, Homesick/Roadsick, is surely
self-explanatory in its meaning but Bassist, Mike Davenport, took the time in
between songs to thank the partners of his bandmates for joining them on this
tour. Versus The World seem to have found a cunning balance between Tour Time
and Family Time. Bring the family with you!
As the set closed on Our Song it’s abundantly clear that
Versus The World are sentimental and bursting with expressiveness but they
deliver it in a punk-rock wrapping which truly makes it a gift to the scene.
STALK VERSUS THE WORLD:
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