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Hidden Charms Revealed in Full Glory: Live in Liverpool

Feb 11, 2017 1231 views No Comments

To see Hidden Charms live is to see an uncontrolled explosion of feral rhythm and blues. Can I get a witness? To see them back where it all began three years ago is even better. The tension built as they toyed with the expectant audience that had gathered at the front of the stage, encouraged by hyped up, adoring members and friends of Liverpool band, Roomerz. The first distorted notes of Left Hand Man that broke through the Liverpool night detonated an atomic blues bomb in the intimate, crowded Magnet venue.

The uninitiated, the unprepared, felt their every sense and sensibility suddenly assaulted by the psychedelic blue rock brew that the London four piece have been concocting to perfection over the last couple of years. Knocked out by the sudden, unfettered blinding flash of energy itself, changed forever by showers of dirty, pentatonic shrapnel riff, licked by bending, sliding and picking into the subservience of eternal adulation. The people here tonight already loved them, or came to love them by the end.

I decree: Hidden Charms’ exuberant charm, photogenic charisma and artistic prowess need unhiding immediately. I can only fathom one selfish reason why this band should remain a secret: so that the explosion remains a controlled one in small clubs up and down the country and the fans experience their full force at close quarters. You know, I imagine that this what it would have been like to see the Stones at the Marquee or the Yardbirds at the Crawdaddy, the Beatles in the Cavern.

HC’s songs are an a-bomb. They produce a nuclear fission fusion of past and present, where the American blues of Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and Lightning Hopkins et al crash head on with the English derivative of Mayall and Page, Beck and Clapton, Jagger, Richards and Beefheart and explode into fragments of White Stripes and Black Keys. Once the bomb has gone off you have Hidden Charms. The energy produced induces a frenzy in the audience. The band are invited with open arms as they climb off the stage to play amongst the fans, first Vincent and Ryan, and later Ranny, the birthday boy, whose harmonica solo during the more mellow, acoustic Harder from Here, nods to the blues harp greats of the twentieth century and back. Hail Sonny Boy Macdonald! He is pawed by admirers, who sing “Happy Birthday” to him and celebrate with unbridled gusto. He seems genuinely stoked.

Some gigs offer nothing memorable. This was a huge exception to the rule. Not only did we have the incredible energy in the delivery of well crafted, lyrically blue, heavy riffed songs such as Cannonball, Long Way Down and I Don’t Mind. I remember looking away for a second and then seeing Ryan replaced by a riffing penguin that continued with some exquisite guitar work; I remember the raucous rendition of Happy Birthday; I remember the stage invasion at the end during “I Just Wanna Be Left Alone” with fans on the mic, about twenty bouncing around on the small stage, before Ryan ran off to man the merch stall. What a professional!! I remember this night as one of the best gigs I’ve been to; I remember this band’s future and I know that Craig will be smiling down on their inevitable success.

U2 released the classic How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb back in 2004. Hidden Charms revealed tonight how to explode the atomic bomb you’ve created and burn up the joint.