ahab take The Palladium by storm!

Bob Harris recently described ahab as “blistering”. Simon Mayo has called them “the real deal”. At the end of their set at The Palladium, the Bideford club’s crowd called ahab back for encores until they ran out of songs and had to play a couple of tracks for a second time. They really were that good.

A lot of people came along not really knowing what to expect. The media noise had made it sound interesting and promoter Mark was bubbling with excitement about them. But its all down to what happens on the night and not many people had expected to be spellbound by two sets of wonderful songs rooted in country and folk  and drenched with glorious four part harmonies that seemed so effortlessly brilliant.

With the exception of a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young cover, most of ahab’s songs are self written, yet so polished, they sounded immediately familiar. With 6 and 12 string guitars, a mandolin and a bass, there were 30 strings on stage making a sound that hinted at The Byrds, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils and even a bit of REM but at the heart of it was their really strong, original material.

Their influences might go back a few years, but the sound is totally contemporary. Their latest download single, Lucy, was even produced by none other than John Leckie. Having worked with such luminaries as The Stone Roses, Radiohead and more recently Bellowhead, Leckie saw them at The Cropredy Festival and wandered over to say hello and offer his services. There aren’t many bands able to make that kind of claim and it’s another sign of their enormous potential.

Stand out tracks on the night included Joanna and Rosebud from their latest ep whilst Waggon Wheel and Where’s the one you Love were both played twice to meet the crowds demands. It was all great.

Best of all though was that the band clearly loved the gig as much as we did – drummer Rolfe said later that “it was one of those rare, special gigs” and the band tweeted to say “Bideford (was) unbelievable last night. Hope to be back very soon”. The word is that they will be back too – prepare to queue the day tickets go in sale.

Review by Meady..