Pure Reason Revolution

It’s time for another ‘support band incident’. And probably one of the best. Because the headline band sucked (no names and I’m sorry, but you did) so it was a relief that we at least left with these guys ringing in our ears. All the more surprising because most of the time, we avoid getting to gigs too early due to having endured more than a few horrendous support slots. So when they arrived on stage, we weren’t all that interested. For about 30 seconds. Then I found my ears (closely followed by the rest of me) drawn towards the stage.

The band themselves have cited everyone from Pink Floyd to Porcupine Tree (who they later toured with) to Fleetwood Mac as influences and you can hear that all over their delightful debut ‘The Dark Third’. It’s a beautiful combination of floaty, atmospheric prog covered in folk-tinged vocal harmonies that occasionally bursts into a face melting riff explosion. It’s a shame that their progress was somewhat hindered by a few band member issues, which eventually led to a change of direction and subsequent albums never had quite the same charm for me. I’m sorry that they’ve split but I’ll never forget that first gig.

Here they are live and beautifully captured by Rockpalast at  https://www.wdr.de/tv/rockpalast/extra/videos/2008/1025/pure_reason_revolution.jsp