On The Wayside with Viduals

Akin to Ghostbuster’s nemesis Slimer when he appears over the hotdog stand, I was squatting a spacious windowsill at Wiltshire Music Centre with an Evie’s burger summoning me to munch, when a mature lady swung open the fire-door to the third stage at Bradford Roots Music Festival a couple of weeks ago. She looked agitated, speechless at the brash raucous reverberations of the next band’s soundcheck, as if this wasn’t what she ordered at a “roots” festival, and not alone in her opinion. Naturally, I smirked….

In this much, I consider, not being Peter Pan established, if there’s something psychologically wrong with me. I’m pushing fifty, and welcome the unforeseen, refuse to join pensioner grumpy club. Hark, I say, to the sounds of youthful post-punk indie rock, retains faith musical progression is eternal, and I’m game for upcoming, fledgling bands to do their worst and try turn me into a fuddy-duddy with progression above my capacity. For try as they might, it doesn’t wash; I’m going in if they’re coming out.

The festival’s age demographic was wider than I imagined, and salute the organisers for supplying wild cards, things to appease younger attendees. There was a couple of bands which fit into this pigeonhole, I’m focussing on the one I managed to catch, Swindon-based four-piece Viduals.

This hard-hitting fury, in-your-face indie rock with flavours of skater punk and post-grunge, but never with an air of melancholy, though awash of surprisingly universal dejected romantic topics is a dish best served at a pub-like venue, known for diversity, if not Reading Festival. Our own Nervendings do it with cherries on, and along with a plethora of bands I cite Devizes-own Nothing Rhymes with Orange. The guys of Viduals know both these bands from gigging at The Vic and elsewhere, as I bought up comparisons chatting to them outside.

What came across from our brief conversation was, although not without a touch of understandable adolescent carefree banter, these young guys are level-headed and have a clear understanding what they want and where they wish to take this. Just mentioned that for the sweeping generalisations of stick-in-the-muds! Because, while the performance suffered somewhat with poor technical engineering, causing the Muppet’s Animal-like drummer to be too upfront and drowning out vocals, there was something which grabbed me about these guys, and their EP The Wayside confirms my suspicions.

Five songs pack a punch, Viduals don’t come up for air, the production on this EP affirms the perfect balance of a united group, working as a unit, and the splendour of Viduals shines through. It kicks off with Separate, like a little toe in the water, Look Away increases this degenerate, dysfunctional youthful amorousness theme, both never faulter to a bridge of forlorn downtempo mood, just rocks loud and proud throughout.

To mumble this general theme is cliché, Viduals do it with finesse. Drums roll like velvet over nimble guitar-thrashed riffs and intelligent lyrics, Embraces perhaps the best example. Here’s a thing though; contemplating the aggression of punk of yore, metal or hardcore, while there’s bursts of adolescent emotion within these upcoming bands, the like of The Karios and Mellor, it’s never as incensed or furious as punk’s roots, it takes you with it rather than sticks two-fingers up at you.

Viduals do this with exceptional balance, it’s tolerable universally, unlike, say, The Sex Pistols’ fashion of deliberately offending. I feel it collates various influences along the way, such as the mod-rock garage bands of the eighties, grunge, and in this it ceases to become a “noise,” living in a limbo between acceptable and unacceptable, a kind of halfway house.

But the thing is, taking hardcore bands like Black Flag, through to grunge, there’s never been a more progressive, and consequently, creative time for this genre than now; it has matured into pop, officially and naturally. Enthusing youths to pick up instruments, motivating them to self-promote and persevere with creativity, is a surely good thing. Coming Back to You, being prime to what I’m getting at, perhaps the politest song on offer here; there’s a need to rock, but not spit at or nick the audience’s belongings while doing it!

The finale Permanent Daylight feels something of a magnum-opus, at least to-date, and is symbolic of my overall valuation; in layman’s terms, it kicks ass!

Ironic EP title, in my honest opinion, playing it down. Viduals are a young Swindon-based band destined not to fall by the wayside, rather stand solid and secure on that highway to hell, likely above one of those massive motorway signs straddling this borderline; if the lane is closed, shit, you’re gonna know about it, blasting their non-harshness sublime sound across the stratosphere! Yeah, love it, it’s unexpectedly refined rather than raw, with bags more potential to boot.

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3 thoughts on “On The Wayside with Viduals”

Judy Rose says:

Jan 31, 2023 at 8:11 pm

To amuse:

A propos nothing rhyming with orange, a comedy group from the 70s and 80s, ‘Scotland The What’ incorporated a wonderful rhyme in a song entitled ‘Our Glens’ which was a paean to Scottish malt whisky: ‘Glen Isla, Glen Kinchie, Glen Ugie, Glen Morangie, I prefer them to Cointreau which I find too orangey’.

Not strictly the rhyme you might seek, but still…..

I’ll get my coat…..

Kind regards

Judy Rose

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1. Darren Worrow says:
  
  Jan 31, 2023 at 8:55 pm
  
  The best I can recall from the same period, would be the Keiroa TV adverts, “too orangey from crows, just for me an my dawg!”
  
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