Ironworks, Inverness, 19 August 2006

The Rites (photo - Krystain Rabiej)

THE BEST THINGS in life are free, and Saturday’s gig at the Ironworks was no exception. The week-old super-venue opened its doors to four local unsigned bands in a free taster of its weekly Unleashed session.

Inverness band, Video Arcade, started the bill with impassioned electro rock, mature for their years. Theatre Fall followed with their innovative take on punk-rock, while The Side’s melodic Indie blew the crowd away.

Strutting onto the ample stage, Black Isle quintet The Rites commanded the impressive venue from the outset. In fact they came of age there, backed with state of the art lighting and sound.

Morrison-esque lead-vocalist, Rory Hutcheson let rip with his powerful voice, while the other band members fell effortlessly into various rock vignettes: spinning drum sticks, crashing Casio and wide legged stances. The Rites have certainly perfected the cut of Stadium Rock Gods.

And their music was no mere match to such iconic posering. In a lengthy set, the band moved from poignant lyricism to infectious anthems, nodding to The Allman Brothers, AC/DC and Stereophonic on the way.

With songs such as ‘Human Machine’, ‘Testify’ and ‘Release The Beast’ you can see why these guys have been awarded finalist places in the UK Song Writing Contest three years in a row against thousands of other entries.

Chatting in the toilets after the gig, girls reminisced of when the group performed under the name Dionysius. Sadly that fitting name of drunkenness and song was lost due to legal problems, but the spirit of the band continues.

As keyboardist George Campbell explains, “we’re basically about playing music, having fun, people following us and getting blazing,” adding, with just a hint of ‘Spinal Tap’, “we want to give something back to our fans.” Watching the group throw 30 of their E.P.s into the crowd, you can see they’re committed to this ideal!

This stunt, like the gig and free-entry night itself, left the young audience with a taste for more. All four bands seem set for a bright future, and the £3m venue (all from private rather than public money) hold promise of being one of the most significant developments to arrive in Inverness music scene for years.

© Susan Szymborski, 2006.

Links

• Ironworks
• The Rites