It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since Oli Brown & the Dead Collective made their live debut and after a couple of one-offs and a support tour with The Answer, they’ve not been out on the road. However, they’ve managed to release another couple of EPs in Prologue and Epilogue and with this, their first headline tour christened “Initium”, it’s clear Brown and his collective are focusing on beginnings, albeit the end of this first chapter.
We’re in the smaller room in KK’s Steel Mill tonight, the big room quiet and people are freely milling about on this Thursday night. By the time openers, Zac and the New Men, arrive on stage, there’s not much of an increase in numbers but they approach their set with a level of professionalism belying their years. Indeed, as both Anchor Lane and I thought when the Welsh lads supported them a couple of years back at Crumlin’s Patriot, they’re going to be monsters. And that journey is well underway. Whilst there’s a few band shirts in the crowd, they play to the whole room with a level of polish and slickness most other bands would envy.
Much like tonight’s headliners, they’re hard to pigeonhole into a nice, neat little genre box but what you can say about them is they’re refreshingly modern as hints of blues and hard rock creep into a solid bed of alternative and finished with a light pop varnish. There’s something special about them as Oli Poole shoulders much of the intricate guitar work himself but when it interweaves with Zac Davies’ on the few turns he takes, the melodies elevate from excellent to sublime. Fuzzy, full-bodied bass from James Dye mingles with the six strings, playing on equal footing with them and contributes heavily to the band’s grittier moments. Playing much of their debut album, Reinvent Me, in the live environment it’s bigger and bolder, powered by Will Newman’s hypnotic drumming, and the angst in the music is as sincere as the performance itself. There’s also a couple of teases of new songs, one of which closes the set and whilst it’s a ballsy move, it shows the belief in themselves and their music that they manage to pull it off.
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As smoke fills the stage, it signals the show is about to start and the anticipation is building. They’re not even on stage yet but this is all part of the experience which follows. With the stage fully blanketed, The Dead Collective of Sam Wood (guitar) and Wayne Proctor (drums) climb onto the stage to approving cheers before the audience kicks it up a notch for Oli Brown. Immediately launching into Prologue’s “Father”, the trio are in perfect sync with each other, well into tour mode. It’s loaded with emotion as are the ten songs which follow and that’s what tonight is about – Oli Brown & the Dead Collective want you to have an emotional reaction to the music by pouring their own personal feelings into it.
And indeed, that’s what they do for over an hour. You’d be hard-pressed to find a band who throw themselves into their music and performance more than this one. Brown and Wood, two of the best guitarists of their generation, trade licks effortlessly with Wood adding punchy rhythm work around Brown’s virtuoso lead. There’s as much emotion in his playing, conveying every possible feeling of the human experience, as there is in his vocals. Roars and wails mingle with breathy whispers and hushed tones, the control on his voice is remarkable and has only improved over the years.
Between the gritty and groovy “Everything You Want”, the vulnerable “I Won’t Leave” and the boisterous yet heart-on-sleeve “Haunted”, the Dead Collective manage to tease a couple of new songs which we can expect on their debut album. “Goliath” is sombre in its opening before it roars into life like a feral beast. There’s hints of blues in the verses which keep the attention against the feral beast which is the chorus. Meanwhile, “Estranged” (no, not a cover of the Guns N’ Roses epic) is all about creating an ethereal sound and shows yet another side to what this band can be.
Between the hypnotic guitar work of Brown and the power coming from Wood’s own guitar, it’s great to see Brown work with another guitarist rather than hold his own. And whilst he can with ease, the extra guitar simply makes for bigger, bolder and more complex soundscapes. Meanwhile, Wood doesn’t have his usual Chesire cat grin on his face like when you see him with Wayward Sons, Black Star Riders or the other fifty bands he plays in. Regardless, he throws every ounce of himself into his performance and between him and Brown, far less static than they were last year. They join forces with Wayne Proctor’s expressive drums. Full of panache without veering into flamboyance nor into a simple workman-like delivery, he straddles the line between the two sides and corral’s the guitarists along with the atmospheric accoutrements from a laptop to create faithful renditions of the recorded versions. And like all great bands, there’s an effortless present chemistry between the three of them that exists only in the best of bands. This, combined with the lighting that Brown has programmed himself down to the second shows not only how great they are as musicians and as a unit but also how he wants to create something truly special.
There’s not a straightforward way to neatly describe the Dead Collective’s music but that’s by design/ There’s nods to Brown’s blues roots as well as the gritty, heavy parts of RavenEye but this is a band which truly sounds different from anything else on the UK circuit. As alternative meets blues meets hard rock in a pool of atmospheric and cinematic soundscapes, this is a show designed to enthral. There’s no room for clapping during melodies, no chance for the crowd to join in on singing and there’s barely a word from Brown. Other than a couple of times to say “Thank you” and introduce the Dead Collective – nothing. Because anything more would break the immersion and go against what they’re doing. Whilst there isn’t an encore, the final two songs of “Your Love” and “Home Sweet Home” feel like it as it shows so many facets of the band in those two tracks between the tender former song and the finale which builds and builds for a goosebump-inducing epic (in the true sense of the word) conclusion. That final song is as breathtaking now as it was when first hearing it last year and it’s hard to think of a better song which could end the night. Whilst the band could play the three EPs in order and it would make for a hell of a show, mixing up the order creates for an entirely different journey and leaves you with one final thought: when you go to an Oli Brown & the Dead Collective show, you’re not going to a gig, you’re going to an experience.
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Photos by SRK Lens
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