LEATHER, CONVERSE & RIFFS: A ROCKER'S DELIG

I was late. Again. What if the show was sold out ... again. That would be great, 3 weeks in a row without a show, what in the concert gods name did I do to anger him and deserve this agonizing torture of not entering shows?

I parked the van, threw on my camera backpack and rushed to the doors of The Underground. I gripped the door handle and yanked on them. The doors were locked. I tried the other door. Locked. I stepped back from under the canopy and looked at the Underground's sign.

"DEC 09 HIGH VOLTAGE"

What is going on? I approach the doors again, passing a gentleman smoking a cigarette with a smirk on his face, the doors are still locked. I turn to him and ask if there is a show on tonight.

"Yeah. Pull harder," he states.

Thanks for the advice Tips. But I pull harder. I pull really hard.

"Hey, why don't you try the other set of doors buddy!" he gloriously tells me.

I look to my right. A whole new set of doors, unlocked and everything. I can see my IQ dropping a few points.

Awsome start to my night.

I race down the stairs, purchase my ticket, open the doors to the concert room, quickly unpack my equipment and race up the stage just as Josh Alverina of High Voltage belts out "This is the High Voltage CD release ... who is READY?!?"

The room erupts in cheers and scattered chants of "HV, HV, HV, HV, HV!"

While the soundcheck was under way Sean Royle pleased the crowd with feedback from his guitar and random spurts of riffs, not even shedding light on his underlaying talent on the axe.

Personally, I am not a 'old-school rock' fan. However you want to define 'old-school rock' if it is music from the 60's to the 80's, I am not a huge fan. I own no CD's by any bands from those times but I am a lover of music and I will not shutout a genre. So, knowing High Voltage was a 'rock' band who loved the classics, I didn't attend many shows of theirs. What a mistake.

I obviously judged HV before I saw them.

I can't tell you the names of the songs they opened with or closed with and I can't tell you the lyrics that the crowd yelled out along with them, but I can tell you some other facts.

High Voltage has their act together. They are obviously knit together as a band by a few common strings.

They all love rock, they all love music, they don't just listen to music, they study music. It is obvious. From the stage antics of Josh to the drum patterns of Luke Arnold, High Voltage studies and knows how to play their genre of music.

The band is obviously close to each other, from the way they grinned at each on stage to the way they respected each other's parts, they are close friends off the stage as they are on the stage.

I would love to describe the talent behind the guitars. I spent the first few songs on the right side of the stage ... or the left, depending on if you are on the stage or in the crowd. Either way, I spent the first few songs on the side of the stage that Sean Royle was burning up. Short, long blone hair, one black Converse, one red Converse, tight black jeans, sleeveless shirt and a B.C Rich guitar ... can you look more like a guitarist?

Can you play more like a guitarist than Sean Royle? I don't know if I have met anyone in my time in Waterdown/Burlington/Hamilton that could outrip Sean on the axe. He must have been born with a guitar slung over his shoulder. This kid knows his stuff. I can't even say anything was wrong with him as a guitarist, he had every part perfect, he hit every note and he hit the notes with STYLE.

Eric Martin, rhythm guitar. I love just watching him play. The stage presence he emits is awsome. While ripping it up with lightning speed rhythms or picking out a heart wrenching melody, Eric puts himself into his music. With swinging hair and moving his body in beat with his rhythm, he only increases the skill of HV.

Josh Alverina belongs on a stage, infront of fans. I can also see Josh sitting infront of his t.v. watching clips of old rock videos, studying every move the singer does. Josh's stage presence is enormous, he is anything but akward on stage.

But forget his stage presence, forget his attire that fits the music and him perfectly, because all that doesn't even matter once you hear this singers voice!

He hits every note. He has vocal cords meant for singing rock. Not the stingy rock you hear off of Supernova or Canadian Idol, not the rock you get from the reality show INXS ... no ... this voice is tuned, rearing and ready for rock. For Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Metallica, AC/DC rock.

Now, yeah, the band members all have stage presence and don't treat their instruments as if they were new to them, they also work great together.

From standing in the middle of the crowd, Eric and Josh stood back-to-back singing and tearing it up on the guitar, with the crowd shouting and yelling around them to Sean taking off his shirt and impressing the ladies with his guitar skills to Josh and Sean singing their sweet lyrics together, it all fits together to form the rock that Hamilton knows best.

I would like to criticize this band because  I hate handing out reviews praising a band and not recognizing their faults. There were no faults in this band. They have it together unlike any local band I have seen in a while. They stand outside the ever-so-popular trend of emo-screamo-hardcore music that we have come to like so much to show that real rock doesn't die.

The only fault I can find in this band is that they didn't dropkick one kid off the stage who would stand up on stage every time Sean ripped it up on the guitar, or would raise his hands and point at Sean when he held his notes perfectly ... as if the crowd didn't see what was right infront of them and needed this kid to point it out to everyone. Plus, he was in almost every picture I took ... creating a good hour of cropping and editing that wasn't needed if he would stand in the crowd like ever other person. Groupies ....

But I guess if you are an optimist you could view this kid as the poster boy for a HV fan ... oh well.

Until next time,

Jason Matos

(photos by jason matos: Guitarist Sean Royle; Royle and vocalist josh alverina)
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www.jasonmatos.com

Comments

[Jason]

Hey, no problem at all.

I'll give you the CD with all the pics.

Jason

[heather]

I agree Sean Royle is completly amazing and he is only 16 or 17. They have amazing stage presence. That was a great show:) Thanks for getting pix since I didn't bring my camera.