OneMetal.com music LIVE REVIEW:
Sacred Mother Tongue – Nottingham Rescue Rooms

We love Sacred Mother Tongue here at OneMetal. So there’s not a chance in Hell that we would miss an opportunity to catch the boys live. So tonight we headed off to Rock City Basement to be fully entertained… only the gig had been moved, to possibly one of the poorest venues I have had the pleasure of visiting.

The notices state the gig has moved to The Rescue Rooms, which is a great venue in itself, but they failed to say it was upstairs in a poxy room above the Rescue Rooms that previously we have only seen used as a backstage area. The early signs are not good.

First up we have With Silent Eyes. They show some early promise, but even their vocalist with impressive pipes and exceptionally dubious shorts/trousers fails to really generate anything of impact. All credit to them though, they tried and there was an element of potential.

With One Last Breath landed with a much greater impact. These guys are tight and actually bloody good. We’ve liked them since we caught them a year or so ago. Heaps of talent, good songwriting and a great presence. They do not break any molds with the music they are churning out but the tracks they produce are done well. These four are ones to watch for the future, they definitely have youth and talent on their side.

So the main event, Sacred Mother Tongue. The place is warming up and the lads amble up to what can laughingly be called a stage. There isn’t enough room for the band to be honest, whilst With One Last Breath guitarist Joe may have been happy to hide behind the pillar in the room, it’s not right for SMT’s fretboard fondler Andy James to take such a backseat… so the answer… have him off the stage at the side by the door. Great for us watching the shredding, but not ideal for the whole band vibe. Another point, anyone who has seen SMT live before will know that bassist Josh Gurner is one of the most active guys you could have at the low end. He has more bounce than Tigger on speed, so it’s not ideal to have him rooted to the spot for fear of knocking over amps and kit perilously perched on the minuscule stage. It was a major disappointment to see someone so entertaining being forcibly subdued by the venue constraints.

All this aside, the guys were here to entertain, and entertain they did. There is nothing more surreal than having a front man asking the “pit” to be careful with the two guys dressed as bananas because one was on crutches! Darrin South banters with the crowd and spits out vocals as the SMT churn through the storming album “The Ruin Of Man”. However a couple of tracks in and the curse of the PA strikes the rest of the set has to be performed sporadically without a vocal mic as the sound man dashes back and forth to constantly trying to resolve the situation. Fortunately those gathered in front of the stage were more than willing to help out with vocal duties wherever possible, so all we can say is that Darrin South looked to be mouthing the right words most of the time.

The biggest pain of all came when SMT aired their new as yet untitled track. (For this tour, suitably named after each city). Instrumentally it sounds great but vocally Nottingham hasn’t got a clue. Perhaps these issues brought the punters closer to the band, and the atmosphere was good, but it still disappoints.

It’s a shame that the venue hindered the band so much, and technical issues made the performance take a back seat. Afterward people weren’t talking about how good SMT were, they were talking about the venue and the technical issues, and that just isn’t right. Full credit to SMT for soldiering on and enjoying themselves, but it seemed painfully short and sporadic. These guys deserve better.

Bottom Line

SMT are normally outstanding live, but with the odds stacked against them it was going to be difficult. This was more the Andy James showcase and Nottingham needs to have the full SMT experience. Tonight they were short changed.