Raar + Vantage Point
Edinburgh Spider's Web, 12th November 2004
It's an icy cold November evening. Outside, Friday night party people are wrapped up warm (apart from a few lads from Newcastle, obviously) in hats and scarves and the grit trucks are preparing for a big freeze. Inside the Spider's Web, however, we're warming ourselves in the fiery furnace of Heavy Metal, courtesy of local band Vantage Point.
Vantage Point play no frills, straight down the line, old school heavy metal, complete with falsetto wailing, thumping basslines and riffs as heavy as concrete boots. Bassist and singer Murray has that classic Biff Byford combination of thunking bass and triumphant metal arm gestures down to a T, whilst the guitarists content themselves with striking axeman poses in the background. In fact never before have I seen quite so much heavy metal posturing squeezed into such a tiny space. With suitably Priest-esque song titles ('Pleasure Slave', 'Gripped by the Throat', 'Motorman' – just a shame about 'Back Street Abortion', which I could have done without…) they are the essence of heavy metal. Wimps and posers, leave the hall…
On second thoughts, don'’t, because you might quite enjoy headliners Raar. Perhaps the first metal heroes to hail from the Highlands, they burst into view sporting furry trousers, braces and, um, not a lot else, and looking for all the world like extras from Dragnet. Despite the fact that they all appeared to be fairly drunk already and hell bent on getting more so, they sounded pretty good, treating us to a glam/punk/metal distillation in which Motörhead meets old school Crüe meets the Sex Pistols, with a bit of Justin Hawkins-style showmanship thrown in for good measure. God knows what any of the tracks were called (the frontman's teuchter banter was utterly lost in sound so muddy six hippos could have wallowed in it) but all were carried off with a seat of the pants panache that was cocky, outrageously theatrical and pure rock'n'roll.
Because if Vantage Point are the essence of heavy metal then Raar certainly embody the spirit of rock'n'roll, complete with drunken on stage antics, guitar trashing and a fantastic finale which saw the frontman launch himself straight into the drumkit. Although this is the first gig I've ever been to which had to be put on hold for five minutes so the guitarist could go to the loo... The encore was a bit of a mistake – by that time we'd kind of had enough and were looking forward to the rock disco – but all in all, Raar rocked.
For those about to say 'FOAD to false metal!'… we salute you.
