Walker & St Deluxe Live

Vintage Rockbar, Doncaster, Fri 3rd October 2008

* St Deluxe *

Wielding riffs that Queens of the Stone Age would shop their dealers for, 3-piece noiseniks Walker deserve to be heard in an aircraft hangar rather than this tiny bar. Opening with “Hollow Planet”, an urgent slice of controlled feedback, they pretty much lay waste to the audience from there. “1976” is immense while “The Letter” is an ace pounding tune o’ doom. While there’s no doubting Paul Dorrington’s guitar skills, his vocals are restrained and shy in stark contrast to the wall of sound that the band make. Yet whenever bassist Darren Belk chimes in on BVs it makes a lot more sense, making you wonder how good they could be with a bit more self-belief. “Mathmateacher” is Pavement-esquely smart and by rights should on be the soundtrack to every US hip slacker movie ever made from now on. Loads of bands talk about being influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine but not many can pull it off in a tuneful explosion of noise like Walker.

St Deluxe have got tunes that could destroy cities. So, in the near-future, when you see them playing at an enormo-arena-barn or festival near you, you hereby have my permission to lie to your friends, saying that you where there when they played in Donny on a Friday night in October, in all their gloriously crunchy glory. But you weren’t and I was and it was sweet.

John Fell

Hotlinks:
Walker Myspace
St Deluxe Myspace