Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
People often forget that sometimes a sound does not come together by accident, that sometimes it requires more than the heads down and study routine we regretfully install into our children, that the happy medium of play hard and work hard is just something to say when we wish to sound fully rounded human beings; what sometimes brings a sound together is the touch of personality, the moment when an audience watches you and they experience magnetism, a quality of character so life grabbing you cannot but be helped to be drawn to it.
Dark Polaris have that quality, it overflows like a storm on stage, wild, passionate, everything played at the right time and the magnetism grows stronger, they may be fresh out of the box but there is no denying their strength or purpose and the upshot of it is that they can only get better, they can only become more cohesive and draw more attention to themselves.
For those who had settled down all afternoon with their families, their children, on the old bowling green at the Hub in Bootle, this was quite a moment, a great new band who not only sought and received the interest of the old crusty, Time worn fan but who entertained the generation that to that point, the only thing they knew about music was that it was inaccessible; not no more, this was the moment in which the Family day in Bootle came alive for all on the green and it was worth every moment.
For in lead vocalist Rebecca Angell and the band, the 21st Century’s version of the Roaring Twenties has a group, should they wish to, be very much a big thing from the annals of music; it is one laden with pressure of that they must be under no illusion, bear traps await them, there will be jealous eyes and tongues but with the purpose of character they showed in Bootle on a hot August day in their memory, it is hoped they will prosper and remain awesome.
In songs such as Stilton, Past Life, Twisted Cage, I Lost It, Horses in Pyjamas, Let It Go and a tremendous version of Velvet Revolver’s Slither, Dark Polaris hit the target full on and blew it apart, the warning signs of falling in love with a band acting like a siren high above the audience’s heads.
Time can only ever unfold, time can be cruel or merciful, it is up to the band whether they treat that entity with respect or give it the cold shoulder, for the sake of great Rock music, it can only be hoped they embrace it with kindness.
Ian D. Hall