Trouble / Rise To Addiction
30 May 2007
Scala, King`s Cross, London


Suspicion seemed to greet Rise To Addiction with the early crowd keeping their distance from the stage. The soundman wasn't helping the band with Cold Season barely recognisable. Things did begin to improve with the epic The Hive, a track the band rarely perform but perfect for this occasion and as bassist Joel Graham led the intro to Everlasting Wave barefoot the tide had clearly turned and cheers greeted its conclusion.

The heavy riffing of One Sweet Minute got heads banging before the inclusion of Sabbath's Children Of The Grave, which was a shrewd inclusion for this crowd and led one punter to lurch forward and shake vocalist Leigh Oates' hand. Falling As One closed the set without momentum dipping and Rise To Addiction left with a few new friends.

Rise To Addiction set list:
Cold Season / The Hive / Low / Everlasting Wave / To A God Unknown / One Sweet Minute / Children Of The Grave / Falling As One


I'd never seen Trouble live and had waited a long, long time for this occasion ...too long it would seem.

The psychedelic Trouble logo, mirror ball and Beatles' I Am The Walrus intro took us back to another era before the band appeared to cheers and a wall of fuzz! It practically took until the refrain of R.I.P. to guess which song the band were playing. Usually such problems clear after a few songs but not tonight as even ear plugs can`t help make sense of the mush.

Whilst I`m wincing in pain, the band plough on regardless, with vocalist Eric Wagner prancing about like an aged Liam Gallagher. Occasionally the twin guitar harmonies of Bruce Franklin and Rick Wartell cut through, but their furrowed brows seem to suggest the onstage sound is equally unsatisfactory.

About two-thirds into the set things begin to balance and Psychotic Reaction lifts things with Jeff Olson laying into his low drum kit. The run in pleases, but the niggling thought in the back of my head is that perhaps Trouble would have better been a band I wished I had seen, rather than having the bubble burst so badly tonight.

Trouble set list:
I Am The Walrus (Intro) / R.I.P. / The Sleeper / Come Touch The Sky / Plastic Green Head / Assassin / Pray For The Dead / Endtime / Mindbender / Goin' Home / At The End Of My Daze / Memory's Garden / Fear / Psychotic Reaction / All Is Forgiven / The Tempter / Bastards Will Pay / The Misery Shows


LINKS:
Trouble
Rise To Addiction