Live Review: The Reasoning, Swansea
I’d been meaning to visit my brother in Swansea for months. When I read on The Storm that The Reasoning were playing their very first gig at Swansea’s Uplands Tavern on Friday, this looked like the ideal weekend to make the trip. So I braved the post-hurricane railway system and some very typical Welsh weather (i.e. wet), and set off for Dinas Abertawe
The Reasoning are one of three bands to emerge from the ashes of the original lineup of Karnataka when they imploded two years ago. While I’d heard very good things said about the original lineup of Karnataka, I never had the chance to see them live. The Reasoning feature Karnataka’s singer Rachel Jones along with former Magenta bassist Matthew Cohen. Since Rachel wrote all Karnataka’s lyrics and vocal arrangements, they’ve as much claim to the spirit of the old band as any of the other offshoots.
Uplands Tavern is a strange sort of venue. The bar is right in the middle of the room which means half the people there can’t actually see the stage. And it’s difficult to fit six people on the tiny stage, which meant that for much of the gig I couldn’t see lead guitarist Lee Wright.
If they were a little nervous at first, the energy rapidly picked up, and they soon got past the usual small venue problem of dodgy sound right at the start. As one might expect from a band with two guitars, the new material is a little rockier that Karnataka were, but nevertheless sounded impressive on first listen. Rachel Jones shared lead vocals with guitarist Dylan Thompson and keyboard player Gareth Jones, with some complex harmonies in places. We were even treated to a solo song from Gareth Jones, which sounded very Elton John to my ears, only without the oversized glasses and bad toupee. Much of the second half of the set was old Karnataka material on which Rachel was on fine form, including an excellent “Talk to Me”. Deep Purple’s “Stormbringer” seemed a very odd choice for the encore; with Dylan singing Coverdale’s vocals and Rachel singing Glenn Hughes’
I look forward to getting my hands on the new album, released next month, and seeing them again at Crewe in April
