Adam Franklin at the Echo

Adam Franklin and Ken Andrews are similar in some respects. Both fronted amazing bands in the 1990s (Swervedriver and Failure respectively) and recently adopted their names as a title of their solo project. I kick myself for missing the Hum and Swervedriver tour back in 1998 which would have been a display of epic sheets of guitar noise. Adam is touring with a full band in support of his new album "Bolts of Melody".



Benni Hemm Hemm by the way of Iceland conjoured images of Arcade Fire meshed with Sigur Ros with a stage full of people and instruments. They played a various batch of songs with different influences. The music seemed as cold as Iceland unfortunately. I will take a listen to their recorded tracks for a better judgement. I did get a nice promotional DVD of Iceland from the band.










Adam Franklin and his full band took the stage and immersed the audience with reverb washes and the dreamy tremelo guitar work of "Seize The Day". Adam would seemlessly incorporate his tremelo guitar work into the songs and make it look effortless. I was even more impressed that Adam used the skill very tastefully and did not make it gimmicky. His band was exceptional in handling all of its assigned duties. There were some moments of Fender Jazzmaster duelings sprinkled in the set. Another talent Adam displayed was his use of his Boss DF-2 Super Distortion and Feedback pedal in which he would keep his foot on the pedal to cause the last note to sustain unleashing a hurricane of guitar noise. I encourage you to check out Adam Franklin's album "Bolts of Melody" if you are into melodic guitar washed rock. I now need to find a Fender Jazzmaster to practice some tremelo work.

Adam Franklin setlist for the Echo
"Seize The Day"
"Sundown"
"Morning Rain"
"Feeling"
"Bolts"
"Directors"
"Canvey Island Baby"
"Theme From LSD"
"Streets"
"Shining Somewhere"