Artist: Troy Redfern
Venue: Frome: The Tree House
Date: 17th June 2024
"An amazing ending to a great set. It was an excellent performance by both Redfern and the band. He is a stunning slide guitarist, and has very good musicians playing alongside him."
The Tree House is situated just outside of Frome and is above a pub. It holds about one hundred and fifty people, and is affiliated to the more famous Frome venue, The Cheese and Grain. The Tree House was about two-thirds full, which for a Euros football night and a school day was a very good turn-out. This was the very first date of the eleven-date UK tour.
There was no support, and Redfern and the band came onto the stage at 20.00. The drummer started with a beating drum before the band launched into ‘All Night Long’. A perfect opener as it is a fantastic rocker from the latest album, ‘Invocation’. The sound was loud but filled out the venue nicely without any nasty feedback. The band are a three piece with Troy Redfern on guitars and lead vocals, Keira Kenworthy on bass and backing vocals and Nicky Waters on drums. After applause from the very appreciative audience the band launched into ‘Getaway’, another blistering rocker which got the audience fired up. With a few words from Redfern and a change of guitar, then ‘Van Helsing’, another track from ‘Invocation’ was performed. In fact, most of that album is undertook throughout the show. There was soaring slide guitar on every song and all the guitar solos were superb. After each song there was a good acknowledgement from the crowd.
Moving away from the latest album saw the band perform ‘Ghosts’, that was a single from ‘The Fire Cosmic’ album released in 2021. It was a different style of tune to the previous ones and was Country Rock tinged; again there was a good response from the audience, who had probably heard it on Planet Rock, as it was featured many times when it was released. The mood then slowed down and ‘Blind Me’ proceeded; a pleasant ballad with nice backing vocals from Kenworthy. After that then there were several songs from ‘The Wings Of Salvation’ album, which had the crowd clapping along. With another change of guitar then ‘Voodoo Priestess’ and ‘The Strange’ followed swiftly on; they were both singles and are the stand out tracks from ‘Invocation’. There were then more tracks from ‘The Wings Of Salvation’ album and then another three tracks from the ‘The Fire Cosmic’ album. The set ended with ‘Scantify’; it was a twelve minute master class in slide guitar. Part way through this song, Redfern went to the back of the stage and knelt down in front of his amp/speaker and played off of the feedback before returning to the front of the stage to finish the song.
After being on for nearly ninety five minutes, Redfern announced that ‘Scantify’ was the last song as there was nothing else left on the set list to play. However, the audience was not having any of that and called for another song, to which Redfern retorted that if they played another song then it would be ‘Made Up Shit’. So, with a few exchanges between them, the band then played ‘Made Up Shit’, which was about six or seven minutes of incredible playing by all present on stage. It never once felt like a jam and the band were very together. An amazing ending to a great set. It was an excellent performance by both Redfern and the band. He is a stunning slide guitarist, and has very good musicians playing alongside him. It was just the right mix of songs; there was a lot from the latest album, but then there were also a good number of his more popular songs from his previous albums to keep all the fans happy.
Review: Paul Gregory Photos: Pacific Curd Photography
Gallery: All photos © Pacific Curd Photography (used with kind permission)
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