Three From Above, Vulture Cult, Primyl Vinyl: Sound, Liverpool

Three From Above

Three From Above are making waves around town and they have a single release to announce at Sound so Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody was keen to see what goes down.

Three From Above have a single – Magic Monday – to launch and there’s a party in Sound to celebrate.

Although there is recorded material available on line, this is their first proper physical release. The band appeared on our radar a couple of months ago at the Invisible Wind Factory supporting The Orielles and we were mighty impressed.

Their sound filled the huge space of the IWF with ease and, we’d wager, won a lot of new admirers. Tonight will be a very different proposition in the basement at Sound Food and Drink. Small, loud and sweaty is the prediction.

We see lead singer Tom Collins at the door and collect a copy of the CD. “Do you know the story of Magic Monday?” he asks. “It’s about the 2001 Wimbledon that Goran Ivanišević won on a wild card ticket as he was ranked 120 something in the world and a celebration of all things that kind of crazy.”

Primyl Vinyl are proper American style blues rock. Two guitars, drums and no bass gives a kind of scuzzy, but yet stadium sized noise.

There’s an inflatable whale on stage. “That’s Jeremy. He’s our mascot. He likes having his photo taken”. The band launch into A.M., another no nonsense piece of an assault. None of this is ground breaking, but it’s done extremely well and we’re having a good time already, three songs in. Expect more from these guys.

“This one’s on Soundcloud, but it doesn’t sound that good on there”. It sounds fine here. Head of Gold is as a good as any grunge anthem we’ve heard recently.

“Be nice to each other. This is our last tune. This song’s called Baby Steps”. And 20 minutes or so after they started Primyl Vinyl were done, bowing out with easily the heaviest number of the set that would not have sounded out of place on a Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin record. Top stuff.

Vulture Cult have the tricky task of following Primyl Vinyl. They make a decent job of it, but it doesn’t work quite so well. They’re a fine band, but so are lots of other two guitars bass and drums bands. It’s heavy and rocky and done with enthusiasm and they are to be applauded for that.

But there’s no real connection with the audience and there’s something not quite there, although to be fair the set improved towards the end with a bit more invention, but we felt like this was a work in progress.

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In the event there weren’t quite as many heads down for this gig as we’d thought. But that doesn’t bother Tom Collins as Three From Above kick off and he immediately makes the stage his own domain.

The band announce themselves with an audio extract of the commentary from that Goran Ivanišević tennis final before launching into Hail Ceaser and Vagabond at a rate of knots that allows no warm up.

“Now we’re gonna do three old ones that kind of tell what we do”, says Tom. Freedom Fighter, Debunker and Give It Away are all despatched in quick succession. Cleanly and without fuss. This is Collins in his element, where he is the centre of attention, but rightly so because is an incredible front man.

Now off to celebrate at the Three From Above single launch at Sound on Duke Street, Sunny Liverpool!

— Peter Hart (@PeterHart1915) March 8, 2019

Now we’re onto the business end of the night. At Sea finishes the set proper as the sort of B-Side of the Single.

A song about mental health and made even more relevant after the death of Prodigy’s Keith Flint this week. It has a great rock / funk crossover feel. “This ain’t a plea or cry it’s a sigh of release … I’m drowning”

Inevitably Magic Monday comes on next as a not exactly encore tune. We’ll forgive them that indulgence; this is, after all their ball and they get to write the rules.

MM is a glorious, angry, ode to Goran, of course, but to anyone else who can rise up to beat the odds.

We get it was International Women’s Day today and perhaps it’s a pity this was an all male bill, but these were not just lads bands – they’re much better than that. The audience wasn’t a 50/50 male female split, but these three bands have a broader appeal.

The last word is reserved, as usual for Na Na Na. The rallying cry that sees Collins off the stage and out into the crowd.

He loves it. So do we.

Images by Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody