Not many of the crowd (if any) at The Jam last Friday night would have been around to see 3-piece power trios like Cream (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker) or the early Grand Funk Railroad in their hey-day. Saron Gas are by no stretch of the imagination a retro-rock band, but the spirit of those early pioneering power trios lives on in their total commitment to keep on pushing rock’s envelope.
Human Error opened the show with oodles of energy and the crowd were well warmed up by the time Saron Gas hit the stage. The 3 guys from Saron Gas (Shaun, Dale & Dave) started their set with their new(ish) song ‘Gasoline’ and the rock didn’t stop until after the second encore. Despite the earlier comment about them not being a retro band, there were some fine guitar solo moments and even a drum solo.
Saron Gas seemed to have mastered the elusive art of combining the energy and attitude of nu-metal with superb tunes and even sing-along choruses (“don’t tell me that you’re trendsetters…” from 5FM #2 hit ’69 Tea’ for example). They recently signed to US label Wind-Up and they could just topple some US bands from their pedestals.
— Brian Currin
Sugar Music 