SARAH VISTA + GUIDO AND THE HELLCATS – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 25.9.18
Spaghetti Western songstress Sarah Vista has travelled the dusty trail under sun-bleached skies and rode into town for this her first Brighton show at the ever welcoming ‘Hope and Ruin‘.
The heat of the day has somewhat waned and at least in the HAR, there is excellent air conditioning on full blast which is pleasing for those guys in the crowd that have dressed for the occasion donning stetson hats and shirts emblazoned with tassels and rhinestones.
Support tonight comes from Brighton’s own hellraisers ‘Guido And The Hellcats‘ a three-piece who are Dylan Bunce on drums, Vince Whittaker on bass and Guido King on guitar and vocal duties.
They’re a fun rockabilly/country outfit that gets the crowd moving and stomping their feet to some decent trips to the country store including ‘I Need More’, ‘Black Heart’ and a few classic covers ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘Only You’. Guido is a fine and genuinely funny frontman who manages to entertain no matter what he’s doing!
To a lot of whooping and hollering, Sarah Vista takes the stage and we are taken back to the old, old west. The band are dressed for the part which even includes packing a six-shooter by your side.
The set tonight is made up mainly of tracks from the well-received debut album ‘Killing Fever’, dark tales of cheating lovers, death and revenge litter the set, think Murder Ballads ‘Nick Cave’ and early ‘Johnny Cash’ mixed with the sounds of Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti soundtracks and you’ll be in the right ballpark. This is true-gritty (see what I did there) Country and Western, where your lovers and enemies are coffin bound by dawn.
Highlights of the set for me tonight, ‘A Day Late And A Dollar Short’. ‘Get 3 Coffins Ready’. The pleasing slow builder ‘Dig Yourself A Hole’, a tale of lost love and a little more revenge with some excellent slap bass from Emma. ‘Killing Fever’ the title track of the aforementioned album is absolutely sublime and of course the beautifully bad ‘I Wish You Hell’ chugging away like that old steam train and delivering such classic lines as “I give you my last length of rope and hope you hang yourself.”
Sarah Vista certainly has the voice for country and backed by the badass duo of Jeff ‘Henchman’ Mead’ who’s a joy to watch on steel and twin necked Gretsch guitar which he moves between so effortlessly and Emma ‘The Sheriff’ Goss who is a demon on that big ol’ double bass have truly won the west (South East) over tonight!
I for one will be looking forward to another chance to catch up with this outlaw band again and highly recommend you check them out live or the album for yourselves.
More information on Sarah Vista can be found HERE.
Further details about Guido And The Hellcats can be found HERE.
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