When Rivers Meet and Arielle – Review at Nightrain, Bradford

Arielle

All the best things come in small packages and Arielle comes mighty and Brian May approved, her prowess on the guitar is astonishing, her tone wide and deep, and even after following her on social media, I wasn’t prepared for this performance. Sadly I only caught the last couple of songs and in that short time she certainly laid down a neat southern groove with her songs and it was more than enough to convince me that I need to see her again.

You can find Arielle on the internet at:
Website: https://imarielle.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/the.official.arielle
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/officialarielle

When Rivers Meet

My journey to When Rivers Meet and tonight’s gig has been an interesting one. I’d been aware of them for a while, watching occasional videos but never actually getting fully immersed. Then I started seeing an offer on Facebook for a free CD. This was then followed by an offer of half-price vinyl – and being something of a vinyl junkie I became fully engaged and their music has been on heavy rotation at home since. The band’s carefully curated social media presence has also kept them in the public’s eyes and ears. Finally, it is time to see them and I don’t think I am going to be disappointed.

Singer Grace Bond certainly has presence and commands the stage, the band makes a huge sound as the Bassist and producer Adam Bowers bounces around the stage in bare feet and that stage is impressive I am surprised at how large both the venue and stage are and When Rivers Meet certainly utilise it. The band hit their stride right from the start with a quartet of bangers, Never Coming Home really gets the heads nodding and the feet moving.

Introduced by guitarist Aaron Bond, Like What You See could equally be about the band, Bury My Body (in a 6ft grave) making the atmosphere more maudlin an eery atmosphere that is enhanced by Grace’s violin playing. The band’s music is creating a natural high and I can feel it in my bones during Innocence of Youth whilst He’ll Drive Me Crazy continues those feels, it’s a bonafide stomper of the highest order.

Grace’s voice is stunning and resonates beautifully on both Free Man and Walking the Wire, the latter of which also features dual slide guitars to give the solo’s extra girth, solidly backed by some solid drumming.

We are also treated to the latest single Perfect Stranger before the set finale Lost & Found which sees the return of Arielle who performs a fabulous solo.

Job done? Not quite, considering the response from this rowdy Bradford crowd an encore was inevitable and we are treated to a truly blistering rendition of Testify – the crowd all going home happy having rocked their collective socks off.