Review and photos by Russ Powney
An introspective state of hyper sleep was how Bigelf frontman and leader Damon Fox described their temporary hiatus. He also said of their latest release Into The Maelstrom it is a “psychedelic cinematic experience with a Mad Max apocalyptic feel” digesting these statements you can see we are not dealing with your run of the mill rock band here. Damon Fox has charisma by the bucket load, what else could he have ever been? There was only ever going to be one outcome; a bona fide “rock star”. Dressed in top hat and wearing enough eye liner to rival Mr Depp, he projects an outer presence to complement the rich vibrant sound of Bigelf the band.
We have a wonderful mixture of aural and visual with Damon and longstanding bassist and Bigelf stalwart Duffy Snowhill projecting an outer aura of cool. Damon, shrouded by keyboards and enough electronic equipment to rival NASA, pilots the ship with a wonderful dynamism, interacting with the crowd in between songs with ease and a wonderful self effacing manner. The layered textures produced from keyboards, complemented by hard edged guitar (this evening played by John Wesley of Porcupine Tree fame) just drive forward; modern progressive rock, music rich and full. A truly wonderful experience.
Bigelf are a magnificent band, with an interesting body of work, but it is live that they come into their own. Incomparable in their field, lets hope and pray we do not have to wait another four years to see them again.
