Dream State are one of THE up and coming bands in the UK at the moment. Since their debut single ‘White Lies’ went viral, gaining 4.8 million views and counting, they’ve played with the likes of: Don Broco, Bury Tomorrow, Man With A Mission and Holding Absence and have been announced for this year’s Download Festival.
Dave popped down to The Anvil in Bournemouth in a sell out show to see them on what is their biggest tour yet.
The gig kicks off with local female fronted hard rock band ESCAPING DECEMBER. Escaping December came out heavy, heavier than I was expecting and I was hooked from literally the first note. I knew very little of Escaping December before tonight but it’s clear they are a talented group of musicians who know how to play loud whilst maintaining strong hooks due to Samantha Bowers’s vocals. However their set did have a distinct lack of stage presence or energy. Most people these days are not just looking for bands ho play songs but a complete performance which was lacking from Escape December. Whether it was an off day or not, i’m not sure but I wouldn’t be too worried. These things often come with time and experience and they’ve got the songs so they are already half way to being a great rock band. It’s only a matter of time before everything else catches up.
Next up was London alt rockers, CHAPTER AND VERSE. They’ve been on the whole tour with Dream State and are another band to keep your eye on. Even if you knew nothing of them beforehand, they are a very easy band to get into. The songs are catchy with a nice variety of heavy and softer sections with some great vocal hooks by lead vocalist Josh Carter whose vocal reminded me of Adam Leader from the band In Search of Sun;. They brought real vitality and intensity with everyone headbanging and screaming along. The crowd were geed up and ready for Dream State.
DREAM STATE came out to a hero’s welcome with everyone clapping and cheering as they came out and strummed the first note and from then onwards it was like whole place and just stolen the bar’s supply of Red Bull and had drunk them as one in some kind of mass ritual led by vocalist CJ who was running around, hanging off and jumping on top of things like a woman possessed.
Her vocal performance was unaffected as her melodic yet powerful vocals seared through the venue and were finely complimented by gutiarist Rhys Wilcox’s backing vocals. The whole band sounded tight and they reall are as good live as they are on the record.
There were some treats in store, as they performed some yet to be released tracks as well songs such as ‘In This Hell’, their newest single which made the energy go up another level as mosh pits formed, crowd surfers jumped on top of the crowd and CJ herself, made her way into the crowd.
Soon it was almost time for the end and of course they finished up with ‘White Lies’ after encouraging the band to ‘let out all your emotion. We all see and have bad habits and bad stuff in our lives, let’s rock out and let it all out’. Unsurprisingly, it got the biggest response of the night with Bournemouth showing it wasn’t tired enough yet as more mosh pits were formed and CJ took her turn at crowd surfing to the roars of the crowd.
It also has to be said that this band were lovely people. I interviewed them before the show (Stay tuned for that!) and they happily stayed around chatting to people.
Dream State showed why they are one of the most exciting bands in alternative music right now. They have the songs, the performance and the personality to make it big. I know it seem almost cruel, writing a review at the end of the tour when there are few scheduled dates left. I’m convinced you will have nothing to fear as my prediction is that DREAM STATE are here to stay.
You can keep up to date with all things ‘Dream State’ here:
https://www.facebook.com/DreamStateUKOfficial/
https://www. twitter.com/dreamstateuk