Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the St James

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

It had been a big noise week, what with the White Stripes and the Roots in town but the biggest decibels had been saved for last with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

The San Francisco trio's two albums have shown decidedly Anglo leanings, what with their gloomy atmospheres, dense low- and mid-frequency guitar and bass sound, and general appreciation for burying their tunes and their faces in an artfully arranged murkiness.

So it was at the St James, with a lightshow which, for much of the evening, would have barely made its presence felt on the venue's power bill.

But BRMC's amps would have been soaking up a fair amount of wattage. And that mix of shadowplay and atmosphere made for a strangely exciting set before a less-than-capacity St James.

And throughout, it was a case of: how can just three blokes make such a racket?

Well, it helped that bassist Robert Turner is as much of a lead instrument as co-lead singer Peter Hayes' guitar, its fuzz-powered throb turbocharging songs like Rise and Fall and Stop from second album Take Them On, On Your Own into something hypnotic, deeply thrilling and possibly deafening. Add the no-nonsense tub-thumping approach of drummer Nick Jago and the combined result was a high-volume, mid-tempo rock'n'roll exuding a sort of primitive cool.

BRMC's assault-on-the-senses approach did prove wearying after a while but was tempered by frequent moments when the big noise connected with a big song, such as a hot-rodded rendition of early single Whatever Happened to My Rock'n'Roll (Punk Song)? As that song title suggests, this is a band which likes its sense of r'n'r fundamentals. And seeing, well, hearing them celebrate those was pretty darn exciting.