THE REASONING
VENUE ROBIN 2, BILSTON DATE 01/10/2019
SUPPORT JUMP, CIRCU5, THIS WINTER MACHINE
There’s a moment when, as The Reasoning’s intro tape to the opening swirl of Awakening begins to segue with the band onstage, vocalists Andrew Demczuk and Emilee Moyce seem to momentarily freeze in the spotlight. This is wholly understandable when you consider that neither have performed live with the band before, and, indeed, Moyce has actually never performed live on stage at all. In the merest fleeting moment, both bassist Matt Cohen and guitarist Keith Hawkins step up alongside them, a show of support to say, ‘Everything’s going to be alright,’ and, nerves settled, The Reasoning’s last hurrah is underway.
The Reasoning imploded nearly five years ago, the resultant cancelled tour meaning they never got the chance to say a proper farewell. Tonight, band leader Cohen gets his chance to do just that. The very nature of the bust-up means new singers, but long-time drummer Jake Bradford-Sharpe and guitarist Hawkins are back, while Athen Ayren adds delightful keyboard colour and former Panic Room guitarist Paul Davies adds extra bite. When Anne-Marie Helder appears later, along with special guests Sarah Dean and Dave Foster, it enforces the old Karnataka connection from which both bands sprang, and is a delight to behold.
It’s an emotional night, obviously, but what really shines through is the quality of many of the band’s songs. Awakening is a killer opening track, but equally the likes of Diamonds And Leather, Breaking The 4th Wall (tonight delivered acoustically) and Chasing Rainbows really are great songs. They encore with an epic Dark Angel and a rousing Aching Hunger, the audience singalong resounding emotionally around the venue.
Earlier tonight This Winter Machine opened proceedings. While it’s easy to understand why so many prog fans take to their melodic prog, they offer little visually to back up the music.
Circu5 are a little more eclectic, new guitarist Paul Clark thrashing away on a Flying V seemingly at odds with the band’s quirky art rock. They deliver a great cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s Career Of Evil and a delightful version of Tin Spirits’ Summer Now, featuring as they do, that band’s Mark Kilminster on bass.
Jump will be celebrating their 30th anniversary next year, as frontman John Dexter Jones points out. When they deliver a set as good as tonight, you wonder why the band aren’t bigger than they are.
But the evening really is all about one band. The Reasoning might not have scaled the heights they probably deserved to, and tonight brings a closure which may be shrouded in a certain melancholy, but ultimately the night resounds with triumph rather than adversity. It really is a fitting end for such a fine band.
“THE REASONING MIGHT NOT HAVE SCALED THE HEIGHTS THEY PROBABLY DESERVED TO, BUT ULTIMATELY THE NIGHT RESOUNDS WITH TRIUMPH RATHER THAN ADVERSITY.”