Luxury Stranger - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, 6/12/2013

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 14 / 12 / 2013

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Article

Once again yours truly had got his timings wrong. As we walked into the Rescue Rooms, I realised that the band we are here to see were due on stage an hour after I thought they were. That just gave us a bit of time to get a drink and chill out for a bit and watch the crowd grow. And grow. And grow. The main act tonight were Chameleons Vox who sport nearly all the original line up of influential band the Chameleons. But it wasn’t them we were here for. And after chatting to some of the folk in the crowd it became clear that there were just as many who had turned up to see the support, Luxury Stranger, as the main act. Such is the draw of one of Nottingham’s rising talents. Around ten minutes before the start, the small but assured figure of Simon York, their lead singer, graced the stage to make a few final adjustments, and then he disappeared into the gloom again. Then a buzz began to filter amongst the faithful, and three dark figures coolly took their places on stage. Clutching his guitar and gazing into the crowd with a manic but knowing expression, York announced that they were Luxury Stranger and welcomed us all to Nottingham. With a half smile and a nod to the drums, the stage exploded with sound. I turned to the crowd and examined their startled faces. They went from one of those “ooooh” moments you get when you have just discovered something lovely for the first time to ‘”Shit - what was that?” In the space of a few seconds, their startled expressions turned to smiles and nods and rapturous headshaking as Luxury Stranger kicked off in every sense with the opener ‘Diver’. York’s usually pristine hair was tonight worn a little easier, a telling sign of what was to come. As they headed into ‘A Triumph of the Heart’, York was half lit up now by the overhead spots, and flanked by the slender beanie-hatted figure of Tim Bond on bass on one side and Tim Smith hidden behind his somewhat super clean drum kit on the other. Luxury Stranger eased through a high octane set of old and new tracks including ‘Wash’, ‘When the Lady Takes the Blame’ and ‘Side of the Road’, but with a swagger that won’t go a miss on the bigger stage. It’s only a matter of time now. York slumped to his knees half way through to tweek the loops, but stayed there long enough to turn his head towards the crowd with an angry, wild eyed, piercing glare as if to say it was all their fault. The angst-ridden lyrics of loss, hate, love, forgiveness, accusation, pressure and pure desolation were cast across the crowd without one comeback because they were all loving it, and, to be honest, with just half of the set gone we were all feeling a tad guilty like it was all our fault. A little later into the set York’s anger and joy fused in a frantic onslaught on his guitar. He sent himself spinning back and across, venting his anger eventually on Smith’s outer layer as his cymbal and stand and other instruments of noise were sent hurtling towards him. With a half apologetic smile York replaced it for him, and once again grimaced to the crowd who retaliated with whistles and cheers and whoops of delight. Announcing the last track as ‘Face’, the title track to the latest EP on offer, the band defiantly yet somehow humbled by the onlookers calmed down a bit before York once again assured us that everything was okay, and that we had all witnessed Luxury Stranger, and then they disappeared as coolly as they arrived. Stunning!

Band Links:-

http://www.luxurystranger.net/index2.h
https://www.facebook.com/LuxuryStrange
https://twitter.com/luxury_stranger

Picture Gallery:-