Earplugs were definitely the accessory de jour when Liverpools Sound Of Guns hit Hoxton for the London leg of their current headliner tour. The signs were there right from the start, with a large proportion of the Essex boys, Scousers and inevitable Hoxton hipsters, all sporting said apparel. Wise they were too, given that all three bands on tonights bill were not hesitant on whacking it up on the decibels side.
Opening the bill are the young Essex upstarts, States Of Emotion. Olly, Bonzai, Brick and Luke have already created a bit of a name for themselves with having the support of The Inbetweeners star James Buckley (who also appeared in their video to The Unsung). Fast paced, catchy rhythms (In The Running, The Rattler), neat guitar inflections (I Broke The Mould, White Tiger Rising) and a cocky, but likeable, vocalist, they may not yet have appeared in The Only Way Is Essex, but they will be back - as headliners - at the same venue on 8 December, and probably worth the effort to turn out for on the basis of this performance.
Next up, The Fractures, a five-piece north London post-punk/indie outfit, play a fairly competent set of fairly average material that lends much to their Interpol and Radiohead influences. Pleasant enough as a background to placing your drinks order, but nothing particularly awe-inspiring was unleashed. Maybe thats why few in the Hoxton venue seemed familiar with them, despite their apparently having been around for a few years.
Sound Of Guns, who turned out one of last years best debut albums with What Came From Fire, are loud, bold and rock with a fire and passion that inevitably draws initial comparisons to U2, and in vocalist Andy Metcalfe, to Bono. That is, Bono before he became the saviour of the world and was hungry and raw enough to deliver with meaning - something which SOG do with aplomb. Bathed in shades of red and blue lighting, they scattergun through the opening of the dynamically driven Elementary Of Youth, which sets the seal on a 14 song set that fires from the belly and rarely lets up in ace - or in tinnitus-inducing sound level.
In Metcalfe, SOG have a frontman who loves nothing more than playing to the gallery, whether perching precariously on monitors or frequently jumping off stage to mingle with the front row revellers, even grabbing a camera at one point to snap the bemused faces of the crowd. The SOG standards are all included tonight, from Breakwater which rips a cracking drum beat, as the wailing guitars of Lee Glynn and Nathan Crowley swell to a midway key change, before firing up again to rock to the impassioned finale, to Bullets In The Bloodstream and their classic epic rock anthem of Architects (to which all in the room know well enough to sing back the lyrics) and the Celtic synth/tribal drum beat overtoned 106 (Still The Words) with its jangling guitar surround and singalong chorus.
With their second album imminent, four new songs are brought out, including Sometimes, where Metcalfes vocals smoulder of whisky and cigarettes; and Of Our Own Invention, a more sombre number that rises from a vocal start with bassist John Coley taking to keys, and builds with a flourish of Si Finleys drums and guitar work of Glynn. By the time they close the set with what was their first single release, Alcatraz, Metcalfe is by now somewhere submerged on the floor in amongst the fans; the room is alight with fists pumping the air and voices echoing the walk away lyric line, as the sound-layered base builds chord on chord throughout.
Having first caught Sound Of Guns two years ago (as opener on tour with The Twang), they showed the early stages of promise for the future, and especially for the big arenas that they looked destined for. Rising from the glowing embers of a small hometown blaze, they are now are a band who have grown in confidence and panache along the way, with the look and feel (most obviously in Metcalfe and Crowley) of 21st century indie rock gods. An inferno has been lit. All hail.