Gig Review: When Rivers Meet / Arielle – The Garage, Glasgow (20th May 2023)

One word review: joyous!

The joy beamed out from the  stage: everyone looked like they were loving playing for an audience and the joyous Glaswegian reaction from the crowd showed the love was mutual!

But let’s start at the very beginning… I joined the queue outside The Garage before the doors opened and, from the chat in the queue, there was a sense of anticipation and excitement. (It’s Glasgow. Of course you’re going to talk to other people in the queue.) Some people had been following the band for a while and had seen them the last time they had visited Glasgow, while others (like me) had discovered them more recently and were looking forward to seeing them for the first time. After a false start, when the chap on the door thought we were queuing for a different concert, the doors opened and in we flowed to see When Rivers Meet. 

First up was the support act, Arielle. Now, I don’t know if I should admit this here (as the Moshville Times editor may revoke my reviewing privileges) but I had not done any homework and knew nothing about Arielle before going to this concert. I genuinely did not know what to expect as the lights dimmed and Sam Tookey (bass player) and Emma Taylor (drummer) took to the stage. What I didn’t expect was was a 70s rock chick (wearing flares big enough to clothe a small family and perilously high platform shoes) bounding onto the stage and knocking lumps out of her guitars for three-quarters of an hour. She was a force to be reckoned with! Arielle switched between one of three guitars after every song. She introduced one of the instruments as “Two Tone” and said she had built it herself sixteen years ago. (When she was six? I’m clearly getting old when all the current guitar prodigies look like they are barely out of school.) Two Tone was a beast of a guitar, complete with holes through the body and bits gouged out the back for electronics that had at some point been removed and (presumably)  replaced with something better. But a guitar is only as good as its guitarist, and Arielle more than did it proud; she played it so hard I’m surprised she did not do herself an injury!

In her set, she mostly she stayed in 70s rock mode but there were a few hints at the breadth of music she can play. For example, the fourth song of the evening (and the first played on an acoustic guitar) was “Weakness For You” which she introduced as coming from Nashville. She was back on electric guitar, and back in rock mode again, for the next couple of songs: first a Tom Petty cover and then Kalypso, an absolute stoater of an instrumental! Arielle was astonishing on Kalypso and it is a testament to the other two musicians on the stage that they not only kept up with her but matched her for passion and power. Sam Tookey was as cool as only the coolest of cool bass players can be. He stood like a rock amidst the sonic onslaught released by Arielle and laid down a blistering bassline. Emma Taylor on drums was just astonishingly good, so good that  as the song ended, I made the single word note to myself: “drums!”. I should have mentioned Emma earlier because, not only was her drumming outstanding but she also managed to add some beautiful backing vocals to many of the songs. (I was impressed enough with Emma that I looked her up online afterwards and discovered that, among other things, she offers short drum lessons on Instagram – sounds_like_emma.)

Arielle’s penultimate song was “Magick Again”. She introduced it with an apology that she did not have any Scottish inspired songs (yet) but that this one was from Ireland. (Celtic is close enough that the Glaswegian audience was more than happy to forgive her.) Her vocalising on this song had an ethereal beauty and her voice just soared up to to the heights. Gorgeous! The vocals were so good on this song that I feel I can squeeze in my only criticism of her set and, I’d like to make it clear, it is not a criticism of her. Rather, it is a criticism of the sound mix as, in general, her vocals were just a tad muddy. I wondered if it was just my old ears but Daughter Number One (whom I’d taken along as her birthday treat) confirmed that she was having trouble hearing the vocals too.

The final song of the evening was “Genie’s Outta The Bottle”. I hope Arielle takes it as the compliment I intend it to be when I say, this final tune reminded me of something The Bangles might have produced in the 1980s.

In three-quarters of an hour, I had gone from knowing nothing about Arielle to wanting to hear more. I even shelled out some of my hard earned to buy her latest release during the interval. One final comment before moving to the main event… As Arielle stood at the merchandise stand, I was struck by how small she was. I assumed she must have taken her platforms off, but no, she was still raised about six inches by her shoes. I  guess she was such a presence on stage, that when performing, she seemed much larger than she actually is. Clearly, someone I will be keeping an eye on in the future.

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After a short interval, When Rivers Meet took to the stage to a roar of approval from the Glaswegian chorus. When Aaron and Grace arrived, they both had huge smiles on their faces, and they didn’t stop smiling for the whole concert. So, I’m going to say it again, “joyous”.

You are an up and coming band with a strong fan base and increasing interest from the music establishment, so what do you put first on your set list? Do you go for something from your back catalogue; a fan favourite to get the crowd on side and singing along? Not if you are When Rivers Meet! They launched into “Play My Game”, a new song from their (as yet) unreleased new album (look out for “Aces Are High” when it is released this summer). Some might see this as a brave way to open, but I see a band confident in their music and eager to try it out before an audience. And the response of the Glasgow audience was overwhelmingly positive! The penultimate song of the set, “Perfect Stranger”, was also from their upcoming album and was received with even more enthusiasm from the crowd. Check out the video below, and imagine this being played in front of a noisy and enthusiastic crowd in a packed venue!

The audience greeted each song with loud approval and needed little encouragement to sing along, so when Aaron told us to join in the chorus of “Did I Break The Law”, we were only too happy to oblige; it may not have been in tune, but it was delivered with joyous passion. The following track was the first of six (I think) tracks to feature Grace on mandolin. Seeing, and hearing, her on mandolin was a revelation to me. In my head, mandolin playing is characterised by a rapid picking style as heard on “Maggie May” or “Mandolin Wind” by Rod Stewart but, no. This is Grace playing mandolin on When Rivers Meet tunes… and Grace delivers slide mandolin. I did not know that slide mandolin was a thing, but in Grace’s hands, slide mandolin sounds superb! Not content with mandolin and vocals, Grace also played violin on three tracks, including the wonderful “Breaker Of Chains” from which the tour takes its name. Violin may not be a standard rock instrument, but Grace leaves me wanting more. It is also worth saying that as well as playing violin on “Bury My Body”, she also throws in a whistling solo. All this, and I still haven’t raved about her voice. With modern recording techniques and technology, even my voice might sound half decent on a recording but Grace does not have to rely on studio trickery as she gave an astonishingly live performance. I’m talking jaw-droppingly good. Especially memorable was the start of “Tomorrow” where Grace produced a pitch-perfect, acapella introduction. No humming the note, no “give me a C”, no messing about: she just stepped forward and delivered! Magnificent!

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When Rivers Meet are very much about the husband and wife team that is Grace and Aaron. That I’ve mostly focussed on Grace so far should in no way distract from Aaron’s work on guitar and vocals. His slide guitar is particularly impressive but I can’t say I found fault with anything he did. It seemed like just about every song he was handed a different guitar. I hope their guitar tech (Matt Waller?) was getting paid double time! I was especially impressed with his cigar box guitar. I could be wrong (it wouldn’t be the first time) but I think the first song he used it on was “Innocence of Youth”. A cigar box guitar is, by its very nature, not the most sophisticated of stringed instruments but in Aaron’s hands, it sounded unbelievably good. His vocals are impressive too, especially when he is harmonising with Grace. Their voices blend so beautifully; they were clearly made for each other. Talking of which, there was one song where Grace and Aaron faced each other – singing to each other as if nobody else was there. Grace reached up and tenderly removed the monitor from Aaron’s ear so they could hear each other directly, without filter. It was a beautiful moment and I felt privileged to be there to witness it.

Having spoken of Aaron and Grace, now seems a good time to mention the rest of the band. Grace introduced their drummer as James Foxy Fox Fox. I’m pretty sure it was “Fox Fox” – perhaps he is one of the Essex Fox Foxes? All I can say is as a drummer he was definitely a Drummy Drum Drummer! And not just excellent on drums but he also contributed to the backing vocals too – clearly a man of great talent. And talking of great talent, the fourth member of the touring band was Adam Bowers. I knew his name from the credits on When Rivers Meets albums where he is listed as producer but also as playing a plethora of instruments. Here he was mostly on duty as the bass player. I say mostly bass because at one point, after a seriously good bass intro to “Shoot The Breeze”, he whipped out a trumpet and treated us to a little trumpet solo. Worth noting too that Grace held a microphone up to the trumpet, thus adding mic stand to the list of jobs she was already doing (vocals, mandolin and violin). I was slightly concerned though that Adam was on stage barefoot. Daughter Number One was more charitable than me and speculated that perhaps he was deaf and had to feel the music through the stage. My theory is that Aaron and Grace are keeping him barefoot and chained to the bass amp so that he can’t go and produce work by other bands!

All to soon it seemed that When Rivers Meet reached the end of their set. As they launched into “Lost & Found” they were joined on stage by Arielle. I’m not sure how many headline acts would let the support act back on stage for the final song and I suspect even fewer headliners would let the support take the guitar solo, but that’s exactly what When Rivers Meet did. Arielle was front and centre, taking the lead while Aaron stepped back and Grace added tambourine player to her list of jobs. Brilliant! The music and the performance was more important than the main act’s ego.

Thankfully, it was not quite the end of the evening though as When Rivers Meet returned to the stage for an encore. Unfortunately, they were bumping into the venue’s ten o’clock curfew, so we only had one song in the encore, but what a song! We were treated to “Testify”. By this time, there was almost an air of a gospel revival meeting in The Garage. If we had been asked to testify with a shout of, “Can I get a witness?”, I am sure we would have roared back a loud, “Amen!”. Grace even came down off the stage to stand right at the barrier, arms raised as if in blessing over the congregation and we responded in kind.

I could add how great it was to see them on the merchandise stand, joyously signing just about anything that was put in front of them. I could mention how I ended up buying a vinyl copy of “Flying Free Tour – Live” and that it has hardly left my turntable since that night. I could say more but I think the one word review says it all:

Joyous!

Header image by Laurence Harvey

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