Written By: STEVE KENDRICK
Photos By: MAC KENDRICK – MK PHOTOGRAPHY
The Revelation tour comes to Bristol
Bristol’s The Marble Factory was renovated at the end of 2017, and the venue, part of the Motion complex that is primarily used as a nightclub, cemented itself as one of the city’s primary live music venues when the capacity was increased from 550 to 1600 at the end of 2018.
Doors open at 6pm tonight, so it’s an early one for the triple header of Stone Broken, Mason Hill and The Fallen State.
The evening fires off at 6.25pm with The Fallen State, who waste no time in showing us what they’re all about. The five-piece are fully charged as they burst into For My Sorrow, followed instantly by Sinner. Lead singer Adam Leigh Methven belts out the notes like he’s been in the band from day one as Sons Of Avarice follows, with Jon Price playing his awesome solo notes to perfection. Dan Oke on rhythm guitar moves about the stage, playing with confidence alongside Greg Butler on bass.
Song number four is most recent single Standing Tall, and by this point the crowd has doubled in size, the energy flowing as Knives is next, Rich Walker on drums doing his bit in waking up the crowd. Now comes Burn It To The Ground, and Adam now brings in the crowd to do their bit on the woah woooo woahs! Last one of the set for The Fallen State this evening is Nova, the most streamed song to date from the band.
With just over a thirty minute set, The Fallen State showcase their style in the seven song set list. They’re a band to definitely catch next time, to hear more from the new album Between Hope & Disillusion .
Until this evening I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Mason Hill live and as the stage is set, the lighting is electric blue and anticipation is in the air.
The band from Glasgow arrive on stage to screaming applause, with a loud, “Bristol, it’s nice to see you!” The performance starts with punchy guitars and an instant connection with the crowd. Hold On is followed by DNA and I am absolutely blown away. The band are taking everyone to another level as next comes Find My Way, with guitar riffs to die for!
The bpm slows with the melodic sound of Out Of Reach; Scott Taylor on lead vocals oozes with confidence, taking full control of this powerful tune. Scott introduces new song Freaking Out which perfectly describes the crowd’s reaction to the band’s performance; it’s perfect, and the song is awesome. Every band member bounces off one another with a precise and profound connection. The audience are absolutely loving it .
As I’m mesmerised by these fresh sounds, the last three songs pass by extremely quickly and all too soon Mason Hill’s set ends with Against The Wall.
Give this band all the time you have, they are pure awesomeness rock and roll. Surely larger venues are on the cards soon. Mason Hill. Once seen, you will never forget.
The venue has filled to near capacity as excitement fizzles for headliners Stone Broken. Deep powerful red lights flood the stage, and everyone is now ready for this. The intro music has started and cheers of anticipation begin.
The party has started as Revelation begins. The album title and first track of four delivered one after the other with no chat in between. What immediately strikes me is Rich Moss’s incredible live vocals. No way would I expect someone with his truly remarkable and unique singing voice to speak with a West Midlands accent!
The set is a mixture of the band’s older songs from their first two albums, All In TIme and Ain’t Always Easy, and of course from brand new album Revelation, which was only released a couple of days ago. The excitement of knowing and telling your audience you are about to go straight in at number five in the official midweek national album charts is clearly such a proud moment for the band, but their humility and sense of humour shows, as Rich says, “If it wasn’t for Ed Sheeran, we would be number four!” There is nothing but sincerity spoken by Rich as he is clearly humbled by the crowd’s response to the chart news.
Just before going into latest single The Devil You Know, Rich shares that it’s his personal favourite from the new album. Now personally, my favourite up tempo song that gets the crowd going is Worth Fighting For. It is clear to see each band member feeding off the audience’s reaction. Robyn’s stunning smile throughout the set and the band’s enthusiasm in knowing this high energy sound has cemented bringing everyone together.
There is more crowd interaction as items of merch are launched into some very excited hands, before crowd favourite Wait For You delivers emotion with a polished feel. Rich, Robyn, Kieron and Chris are embracing the love of Bristol tonight, and the four-piece are such a professional but down to earth band and deserve to be playing to bigger, arena sized audiences very soon.
