Morning Rush - Exeter Phoenix, 27th August, 2013

Playing at the Royal Albert Hall, no less

A Hopeful Rising From The Phoenix

Morning Rush: an apt name for a band playing this bright and breezy music and for my eagerness to listen to their EP first thing today, having downloaded in the early hours after last night’s ‘farewell’ gig in Exeter.  

‘Bright and breezy’: that suggests pop music, and I think it is, though I like to refer to the ‘pop sensibilities’ of a band when the take is this intelligent and mature. But more important, it’s the writing and playing. The playing is as infectious as the songcraft, and the band excels with their harmonising – and any regular readers will know by now my affinity for vocal harmony.

I’m sure the band has its contemporary touchstones, yet in the way I like to reference my own, I kept thinking of Andrew Gold as I listened to their set last night: not exactly sounding like him, but in the credibility they give to their sound. Then there’s America [listen to the start of Where Our Heart Is – but this song also immediately establishes its contemporary roots as it goes into its semi-rap...and then the complexity of those vocal harmonies and criss-crosses: impressive]. I also thought of Freedy Johnston, and then in one even more impressive moment, Crosby, Stills and Nash. Their EP song P.S. reminds of The Civil Wars.

I know it isn’t any of the above directly, but these are genuine reference points from an older listener. But enough of the precursors, though in wanting to return to the now one has to also reference the ‘farewell’ aspect of the gig. The five young guys are all about to go off to University, each to their separate geographical location – one already studying abroad – and whilst lead singer Sam Luca declared they would be back and performing at holiday breaks, the future as a band must be uncertain. It is an exciting time for each one of them – the cliché of new opportunities nonetheless a reality.

On stage the band has a musical rapport which is as fresh as their singing and songwriting. It’s great to see amped acoustic guitar as lead instrument, played by Luca, and in drummer Pip Arnold, the vocal harmonising he provides is superb, at times soaring at the high end, or even taking on alternative, additional narrative lines – this latter representing some of those more complex vocal structures. It’s good to see a drummer - at the back so often - musically at the front! But the tightness of the whole band is what also impresses.

Morning Rush is recording and finishing an album, and naturally many of the excellent songs played at last night’s gig will feature – hints at times in these of funky and soulful influences, broadening their sound. For now, you can still get their EP here – pay what you will – and this will definitely tempt you to that forthcoming release. 

In the reality that is five young guys going their separate ways, the band may not survive, though their performances clearly will in the memories of devoted fans, family and friends who were all given a heartfelt thanks last night for their support over recent years. And of course their music will too. In the other reality that is all about talent, there is plenty of music within these individuals and one can only hope that if the band does indeed end there will be other beginnings.