A mate said fancy seeing Bob Vylan in Manchester, I’d heard the album and read a bit about this band, a bit of an ooh I fancy that gig but it was a very tired person that drove to Manchesters YES Bar to see them.
Witch Fever were totally new to me and a great surprise. In some ways old school grunginess with metallic overtones and all backing up the peripatetic front person’s very in your face presence as she toured the floor extensively and even sang atop the bar at the far end of the room from the band, all the while keeping focussed. Solid riffs, heavy then light touches keeping it solid and precise.
They have an agenda, there are songs about being a woman in a misogynist world and there is an anger to the band that describe their frustration at this situation. They take it head on and have an uncompromising view backed by an ability to express their anger musically.
Vylan come out to cheers and applause, they have the crowd on their side before it begins and use the stage to keep them transfixed. On one level this is a vocals and drums duo accompanied by backing tapes with Black Flag meets Black Sabbath meets snarly dub/rap/punk/anything goes as long as it has the right effect musically.
This does little to describe their impact.
What you have is a political agenda, and words that support every item of it, words that are smooth, then hard, then sharp then soft, the vocals and the message they carry are central and you can’t argue with their eloquence.
They describe racism and police hostility. They describe being black and living in South London with the Met as you local police. The practicalities for those of us that don’t fit that description are hard to comprehend. It’s a hard world Bob Vylan describe. And they describe it vividly; directly with no room to escape from judgement. You are black. you live in a world were even your protectors are racist, you react. Bob Vylan react musically but this is a restrained (not musically or performance-wise restrained) response to this situation. They suggest in between songs a better way forward, their positivity in the face of such continued abuse is uplifting.
On stage though this entity suggest a way, their joy and sheer happiness at being on stage after so long comes through. The technical problems with faulty microphones are overcome with good humour whilst problems are fixed efficiently in the background. These hitches seem like nothing whilst the main vocalist chats (without PA) to the audience, a lovely bit of no prima-donna all working together musicianship. He introduces himself as B o b b y Vylan and then the drummer as B o b b i (spelling each name out) Vylan causing a massive chant of ‘Our Kid, Our Kid’ that gets repeated by the crowd frequently.
Their message is still forefront and centre but they way they perform is at odds with this, there is frankly love in there. This gig centres on that one emotion. I’ve not seen many artists pull this off like Bob Vylan, but for all the conflict they describe (and ffs we all know its real) they are full of joy, the dark guitar based backing tapes and the live drums that are surely some of the best I’ve ever heard with a totally focussed frontman who can bring you into his world, is subsumed by the feeling that they put out, of love.
It took me sometime to get over this gig and write these words, I felt as though I’d seen something bigger than a mere gig, there was an emotional connection there and the audience felt it and band and crowd were joined together by the experience.
Words and Photos: RBY
Bob Vylan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobVylan
Bob Vylan Web: https://www.bobvylan.com/
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Witch Fever Merch and Music: https://witchfever.bigcartel.com/products