Catfish
with support Dove and Boweevil
John Peel Centre for
Creative Arts, Stowmarket
Friday 21.02.2020
This was
Catfish’s third visit to the John Peel Centre, the last being this time last
year. Tonight’s show had a tweaked line-up with new drummer Kev Hickman joining Matt & Paul Long, and
deputising on bass for the night was Josh Rigal. The
regular bassist Adam Pyke had been given the night
off as it was his birthday.
Firstly, the
support act Dove & Boweevil deserve a mention as
they delivered a superb performance. I’d previously enjoyed seeing Lauren Dove
and Mark ‘Boweevil’ Howes
as a two piece semi-acoustic act, but tonight they brought the full band along
adding keys, drums, bass and some fantastic sax from Joe McGlohon.
From the first note to the last their performance was engaging and over all too
soon. They set a high bar for Catfish to follow.
Catfish bring
a delightful variety to their music with vocal duties shared between the
differing styles of Matt and Paul Long. Matt offering a
powerful rock sound, Paul having a softer tone. Adding further variety,
some songs are keyboard led rather than guitar which mixes things up and to top
it off there is a nice mix of moody to upbeat with slow burning bluesy numbers
to rocky tunes. There’s never a dull moment.
The hard
rocking ‘Up In Smoke’ started the night’s proceedings,
the opening power chords waking the audience from their pre-gig slumber. After
a brief introduction to the new faces in the band the catchy ‘Leading Me On’
followed. In many a band, drummers often go unnoticed holding things together
at the back, this is certainly not the case with Kev
Hickman. With a mass of curly locks there is a frenzy of activity at the back
of the stage, all done with what seemed like a permanent smile, total
enthusiasm and hugely entertaining.
Paul took over
vocals for the slow haunting ‘Ghosts’. This brought a more sombre feel with the
delightful guitar solos from Matt making the hairs on the back of your neck
tingle. Matt was back on vocals for ‘The Root Of All Evil’, which required a
quick guitar retune during which we were informed that the song was about the
state of the world today. With its dark heavy guitar riffs and driven drum
beat, it seems things aren’t good.
Reflecting on
the name of the venue, Paul Long spoke of how he had worked with John Peel at
the BBC as a production engineer for his programme on the 70’s and suspected he
may not have liked the next song ‘Soulbreaker’, but
would appreciate its sentiment about keeping music real. It was a fine song
with a metronomic drum rhythm, and there was definitely no punk influence.
The set
continued to meander through songs from their last two albums Broken Man &
Burning Bridges. The ‘Big Picture’ was introduced as mildy optimistic, Matt having
previously declared that “I don’t do happy songs”, and indeed it was very much
more upbeat, aided by Paul’s vocal style. ‘Exile’ soon brought things back to a
more serious tone, a song about living with depression starting with a languid
drifting beat you can lose yourself in until it suddenly kicks into another
gear half way through. A beautifully crafted song.
Sandwiched
between ‘Too Far To Fall’ and the Joe Bonamassa style ‘Breaking Up Somebody’s Home’ was ‘Broken
Man’, which is one of the band’s must play songs. Catfish is a lot about Matt’s
guitar playing and this song brought it to the fore.
No Catfish
show would be complete without the crowd pleaser ‘Make It Rain’, and at over 15
minutes it is an epic song which showcases exceptional guitar work with an
extended searing solo. At one point the volume was slowly reduced until there
was no amplification. You could hear a pin drop, there was not even somebody
talking at the back to annoy everybody. That marked the end of the set, but as
the band could only leave the stage through the crowd, the encore ritual was
scrapped and one more song offered, which the crowd heartily accepted. The
cheerful ‘Better Days’ ended the evening on a high.
It was heartening
to see that the numbers have increased each time Catfish visit the JPC and they
seem to have a growing fan base in the area judging by the number of people
singing along and/or sporting their Catfish T-shirts. They’re back in
Words & Photos: Laurence Harvey