re:mote voices

Headliner:Warrior Soul
Venue: Cathouse, Glasgow, 19th October 2007

I suppose the Warrior Soul gig I found out about at the last minute earlier in the year, and missed, must have been cancelled? Either that, or after a long time away the band are doing some heavy touring, re-establishing the name in preparation for next year's new album, the first in, what, 12 years?

I guess it was 1990, though time gets away from me sometimes, when I heard Charlie’s Out Of Prison, one of the highlights of this set. The only thing I had heard from the band Warrior Soul before they supported Metallica. Their support slot was crazy, while Metallica was busier/calmer. After that I picked up their debut album Last Decade, Dead Century and then the next album Drugs God And The New Republic. The next tour was in support of the third album Salutations From The Ghetto Nation, where they headlined at the Cathouse, the old one, not the one they played this time. With Chill Pill they moved up to the Garage, though with the release of Space Age Playboys they were back to a support slot.

Warrior Soul were a band, the same solid 4 members, though the image and sound was dominated by Kory Clarke. His voice and lyrics informed the sex, drugs and punk'n'roll attitude of the band, leering swagger and beligerance mixing with a drugged out desire for peace and leave. Over the years there were various members, but those that were key to making the band who they were, were guitarist John Ricco, bassist Pete McLanahan, and drummer Mark Evans (who apparently was murdered in 2005). Ricco gave the band a spike, but McLanahan and Evans gave the band a solid and distinctive rhythm section, which helped separate them from the crowd. However, as the band changed line up, and released Space Age Playboys, something had changed, they shifted from being quite so punk to being just a little too hippie. It was to be their last album before they split up.

Last year saw the release of new editions of the earliest albums, 10 years since the 1996 release of a best of album, which I hadn't known about till recently. Which was the impetus for the recreation of Warrior Soul - though the band is entirely new, Kory Clarke returns older, but still with that edge of strange hippie punk. After the perfunctory, forgettable local support bands have done, 3 strangers take to the stage, and start playing familiar music. Into this Clarke erupts, playing an audience pleasing selection of early material. Charlie’s Out Of Prison, Punk And Belligerent, The Losers, Rocket 88 and so on. So much classic material, with only the material from Space Age Playboys being less than familiar. Though through the set there was only one new track, a piece from a new album which is due out next year - a piece which sounded more in the vein of SAP or some of the other bands Clarke has dabbled with since the mid-90s. Which is to say, it didn't sound promising.

After a particularly widdly, distorted version of a classic track, the band passed a point where they lost it a little. Where the tracks took that bit longer to recognise, and the results just weren't as satisfying. But the first half of the set, where the band were tight, and the tracks air punching, bristling agit punk rock classics, it was a real pleasure to see Warrior Soul were alive and kicking.