Duncan Black – The Skerries, Bangor
(review n pic by Jared Pegler)
Aardvark Rock Night played host to Duncan Black last Saturday, and I’m pleased to say we were there to see him. (NB: Beware of overusing phrases like guitar pyrotechnics or metal-plus, but how the hell else do you describe Duncan’s playing?) He is a proper riff-tastic axe-man! At times it looks like he’s playing a game of twister on his guitar pedals, and that’s just the lower half of his body!
There was a crazy atmosphere to the night which only added to the proceedings…
A group of excitable tipsy goth teens; an enthusiastic visitor with a cane (who apparently used to work with Duncan) turning up halfway through his set; and the average bunch of heads in the Skerries back room… the scene was set!
Duncan’s eclectic metal (can I use that term?) swung from jazz, to thrash, to funk, to techno and all the way back; certainly engaging his audience on every track. (Apart from the excitable tipsy goth teens who were in and out like a fiddler’s elbow, that is, until someone broke the door handle off the door to the beer garden, trapping the teens outside, and the rest of us inside! Perfect! (Until you needed a pee…)
Sometime later the handle found its way back in the hand of, you guessed it, an excitable tipsy goth teens, and all chaos was resumed once more!
Highlights from Duncan’s set included:
Arkanoid / Sh*tf*st / Al Capone / Tubular Bells / Blue Monday / and a track Duncan introduced as ‘Space rock funk type thing’.
“I didn’t think it was that good” Duncan said to me as we were stood out back later on (locked out due to disappearing handle yet again…)
“Are you kidding?” I said, “It was brilliant! The perfect soundtrack to a night of chaos at The Scaries…!”
For those about to Duncan Black, we salute you!!
JPEG