CANNING feel like a band out of step with the modern age, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Fad and fashion don’t interest them; they are unbothered by the winds of change or whatever zeitgeist breeze is blowing through music this week. No, they sound like a band who look back to better times, or at least more honest times, for their inspiration.
Watch this video, and you will see a band who is everything great rock and roll was built on: solid playing, exciting sounds, originality and a sort of honesty and authenticity that has always been the hallmark of the three-piece rock and roll band. (Not all three-piece bands are remembered, but a large proportion of the greatest rock bands have been six-legged groove-machines – Cream, Hendrix, Motörhead, Nirvana, ZZ Top….)
Intricate melodies, effortless groove, a balance of grunge meets prog meets psychedelic vibes, a built-in looseness (willfully laid-back rather than unhoned and scrappy), a great dynamic that wanders between amped up singer songwriter stability and wig-out Hendrixian incendiary deliveries and just an overall feeling that this is a band making music for all the right reasons – not because they merely want to, but because they have to!
And that honesty spills over into the video: a simple live performance, no hyperbolic show, no style-over-substance frippery, no showboatery or over-the-top visuals to distract from what matters, just a band going about band business, live, unadorned, the music speaking for itself. Remember when that was enough? Remember when the song and the band behind it did the talking? Remember when it was as simple as a band proving their worth and earning their stripes just by getting up there and playing? Raw, metaphorically naked…real.
Man, I miss those times, but CANNING have certainly proved that there is still hope. They have made an old man feel very happy…but also a happy man feel very old! Still, the future looks to be in great hands.
Instagram
Facebook
Website
Spotify
