Hot Water Music

When a band play their best songs for 45 minutes, the results are normally good. And when that band involves Chuck Ragan, you know it’s going to be good. Opening with ‘Remedy’ and finishing on a delightful cover of The Bouncing Souls’ ‘True Believers’, the band knew just how to play to their crowd.

Driving through ‘Turnstile’, ‘Wayfarer’ and ‘A Flight and a Crash’, the big tunes didn’t stop coming, as the band made themselves at home in the Lock-up tent. Even a couple of new songs were well-received, ‘The Fire, the Steel, the Tread’ and ‘Adds up to Nothing’ may have given the audience’s voices a break, but they kept moving as the band pounded their instruments like there would be no tomorrow.

And indeed, there wouldn’t be; this was the final stop on Hot Water Music’s tour, and the band explained that they wanted to see it off in style, and simply play some songs that everybody could enjoy. And they did just that. ‘Trusty Chords’ was a superb sing-a-long moment, while ‘Giver’ proved that some of the bands more recent work is as vital and strong as their older classics.

Playing with a mixture of sincerity and warmth, Hot Water Music proved exactly why they are so well-revered in the alternative music scene, and without a doubt, many of the attendees here will be of a likely disposition to go straight out and purchase tickets to see them again when the band announce their next UK tour dates.

[4.0/5.0]