{"id":21631,"date":"2023-04-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21631"},"modified":"2023-03-30T10:17:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T10:17:26","slug":"chris-shiflett-dea-matrona-brudenell-social-club-leeds-24th-march-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21631","title":{"rendered":"Chris Shiflett\/Dea Matrona \u2013 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds \u2013 24th<\/sup> March 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Being a member of the biggest touring rock band on the planet is a great job if you can get it, but I\u2019m sure it drags at times and maybe certain band members yearn for small sweaty clubs, actually making eye contact up close with an audience and maybe even having to fight for that applause each night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Shiflett has played guitar in the Foo Fighters for over 20 years now, but he has other things on the go too. Not only has he banged out a bunch of records with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, but he also has a couple of bad-ass solo albums exploring his country\/americana roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding on stonking new single \u2018Black Top White Lines\u2019 from his upcoming 3rd<\/sup> long player, Chris and his band head out on a six date UK tour of intimate venues, stopping off at my favourite venue the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing better than discovering a great new band live when you are least expecting it, and I rarely research support bands before a gig for that very reason. Dea Matrona are a 3-piece band from Northern Ireland led by Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe and they have the biggest smiles on their faces tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess you could categorise their sound as classic rock with pop leanings. The pair both play guitar and bass, switching instruments between songs, their vocal harmonies are spot on, and the energetic duo pull all the cool rock poses they learnt in their bedrooms watching Zep and Fleetwood Mac videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The songs are good too, \u2018Stamp On It\u2019 is very commercial, instant with a pumping bass groove, the sultry vocals delivered with voices that sound way beyond their years. The acoustic led \u2018Glory Glory (I Am Free)\u2019 is simply stunning. A definite Fleetwood Mac\/The Pierces feel that gets everyone’s attention in the room, and I swear you could hear a pin drop for the entirety.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There’s a cheeky Irish charm to the duo, years of hard graft busking the streets of Dublin have paid off and of course playing to a sold-out crowd surely helps, but Dea Matrona were very impressive tonight. Touring the UK through May they are surely ones to watch in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a sold-out show tonight and there are a lot of Foo Fighters shirts and tattoos on display, but anyone who has come expecting a Foo Fighters song or two will be disappointed. This band isn’t about Chris Shiflett\u2019s day job, this is honky-tonk, low-down countrified americana, best played in bars and clubs and its perfect, utterly perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a feeling this was gonna be a good one\u201d remarks Chris as he tunes up after delivering a salvo of high energy, countrified rock n\u2019 roll. Yes, there is something about this venue that brings out the best in any artist, and tonight is a great example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris, bassist Fox Fagan and drummer Robert Jolly are tight as a duck’s ass and the songs are short, sharp and bloody good. Opening one-two \u2018Sticks & Stones\u2019 and \u2018Liar\u2019s Word\u2019 sound awesome. The sound is magnificent, the telecaster tone to die for and the crackling energy is classic of the Brudenell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 90-minute set covers Chris\u2019 two solo albums \u2018Hard Lessons\u2019 and \u2018West Coast Town\u2019, new tracks from his unreleased 3rd album and a couple of choice covers thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free of the confines of the Foo\u2019s stadium juggernaut, Chris is chatty, funny and engaging between songs. He tells us of his newfound love of Greggs chicken bakes and his hunt today in Leeds for football shorts while winding up Leeds fans (he is an avid Arsenal fan). It all adds to the feeling of camaraderie the band exudes, but tonight is really all about the songs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Set highlights for me go to recent singles \u2018Black Top White Lines\u2019 and the emphatic \u2018Long Long Year\u2019, the yearning country vibes of \u2018Blow Out The Candles\u2019 and \u2018Room 102\u2019 both sounding like they are lifted straight from the Smokey & The Bandit soundtrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few newbies I don\u2019t recall the titles of, but the reggae-tinged \u2018Damage Control\u2019 was a standout for sure, Chris even encouraging the audience to film and upload it to socials so they could steal footage to make a video for the next single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 3-song encore includeded Mearl Haggard\u2019s \u2018Working Man Blues\u2019 and a mighty fine cover of Hank Williams Jnr\u2019s \u2018Family Tradition\u2019 with added audience participation,  glorious set closer \u2018West Coast Town\u2019 wraps things up nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that this highly enjoyable 21 song set was over in what seemed like a flash is testament to the songs and the delivery of the band tonight. High energy, countrified rock n\u2019 roll has never felt so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this band travels your way, do not miss em! Chris Shiflett and his band just set the marker for gig of the year, who has the minerals to take up the challenge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a member of the biggest touring rock band on the planet is a great job if you can get it, but I\u2019m sure it drags at times and maybe certain band members yearn for small sweaty clubs, actually making eye contact up close with an audience and maybe even having to fight for that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[726,1681,1833],"class_list":["post-21631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-ben-hughes","tag-rpmnews1","tag-tourlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21638,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631\/revisions\/21638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}