Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Hype can be a tool in which certain yardsticks are set out to inevitably fail. Hype may gather interest, it may circulate a powerful emotion but the problem with hype is that it soon rusts; it fades into corporate fantasy and the sloth like figure of doomed expectancy. Hype is on the same level as hysteria, it rages and roars but then whimpers like a mouse caught choosing between three different slabs of meagre cheese.

Hype though in the case of Rosenblume is a considered animal, it doesn’t rage and roar, it is polite and meaningful but still casts that huge shadow of social truth over the community, that being, the venue that rocks together, stays together. As April looks to its more bountiful neighbour of May appearing on the horizon, the month has the last laugh of hosting one of the great artists of the year at Leaf, an artist whose name is reverberating off every section of society and whose music is to die for.

The band, in truth a collection of some of the most exquisite players around, including Robbie Taylor, Johnny Roberts and the exceptional Matt Walker on harmonica, stood beside Daniel Ross, the man behind Rosenblume, and gave such an account of themselves at the E.P. launch in Leaf that for an hour, time decayed on its own. The wider world as always affected by its constant anger, but inside Leaf, a small corner of a small world, Time did not penetrate; it didn’t stand a chance as the upstairs room was so full to the rafters with appreciative fans, that if Time had even flexed its seismic muscles, it would have been thrown out on its distinct flabby backside and warned of its bullying future behaviour.

For Rosenblume, the music is captivating, homely, it is full of strength and generosity of spirit, but above all, besides all the elements that make live music a thing of beauty, his set is honest, purposeful and without embellishment. The hype, for once, not doing its job properly enough, for how can the flatulent nature of  hype ever build up something as good as Rosenblume properly.

With songs such as Lost in the Air, What Do You Say, Enough To Burn, the title track of the E.P. All Through The Fire, All Through The Rain, the dramatic excellence and binding nature of The Weight and the stunning set closer of The Knight, Rosenblume didn’t just do a gig, Leaf rocked in a way not seen since the idea of selling infused tea on a grand scale become a world-wide phenomena.

There is normally an exception to anything but even with a cover thrown in and dedicated to his father, the spell binding maturity of Paul Simon’s and Art Garfunkel’s I Am A Rock, was played with such passion, that the microphone was in danger of becoming engaged and the thrilled audience wishing they were the one being whispered to it in the haze of the neon lights above Rosenblume’s head.

An exceptional night out, a set delivered with power and grace and with a band that just stormed every single with a battering ram. Top night out, even hype would struggle to give it a better ovation.

Ian D. Hall