It’s always a happy memory when you recall hearing a good band for the first time, so those of us who were at The Garage on Good Friday will look back with a smile on our first encounter with Silveroller. It probably helped that they were not dissimilar in style to the headliners, but they hooked the audience early and easily held our attention for the all-too-brief half hour set.

Taking the stage to Hugo Montenegro’s theme to ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’, Silveroller opened with ‘Other Side’ from their six track debut mini-album ‘At Dawn’ (2024), with bassist Dylan Evans and drummer Joe Major (whose charming partner ably managed merchandising for both bands) immediately locking in to a solid rhythm.

Vocalist Rev. Jonnie Hodson (who styles himself and Evans as “Liverpolitan”, whereas Major is from the North-East) is certainly not short of swagger and stage presence and managed to remind me a little of Steve Marriott and maybe also Brian Connolly from Sweet’s heyday. His harmonica introduced ‘Trouble Follows Me’ which, in common with the next song ‘Nobody’s Business’, remains as yet unrecorded.

The band reverted to ‘At Dawn’ for ‘Black Crow’ and ‘Come On, Come In’, the latter of which benefitted from a slow keyboard intro by Lucas Tadini (from Brazil) and some nice guitar work from Kenny Tashjy (from the USA). The closer ‘Hold’ also appears in the mini-album, which was already feeling like an essential purchase, as the short set reached its conclusion far too quickly.

Merch sales seemed brisk and the band members were happy to mingle with their new fans. It’s hard to believe that the band came close to folding only a few months ago, until Tashjy arrived as replacement guitarist, but fortunately Silveroller appears to be riding a new wave of enthusiasm and long may that continue!

DeWolff is, of course, a well-established trio featuring brothers Pablo (guitar and vocals) and Luka (drums) van de Poel, plus Robin Piso (organ and keyboards). They were joined for this gig by two backing vocalists (I’m guessing that it may have been Kim Schulte and Diwa Meijman, who have performed often with the band), who seemed none the worse for a problematic journey, which included a Eurostar cancellation!

I had expected the gig to focus on songs from the band’s latest album ‘Muscle Shoals’ (2024), but its predecessor ‘Love, Death & In Between’ (2023) was equally well featured at both ends of the set. Piso’s easily recognisable swirly keyboards introduced ‘Night Train’ (2023), before the backing singers engaged in some call and response vocal exchanges with the audience on both ‘Heart Stopping Kinda Show’ (2023) and ‘Natural Woman’ (2024).

‘Love, Death & In Between’ also provided ‘Will O’ The Wisp’, complete with a nice organ and guitar intro and a wonderful solo by Piso. Songs from the latest release then allowed the brothers to stretch out in long solos of their own, with Luka shining on ‘Out On The Town’ and Pablo on ‘Snowbird’.

At this point Pablo paused for a “commercial break” in which he highlighted some of the available merch by tossing a baseball cap, a t-shirt and a pack of playing cards into the grateful audience!

He was soon back, firing on all cylinders, ripping off a fine guitar solo on ‘R U My Savior’ (from ‘Wolffpack’, 2021), before indulging in some great interplay with the organ on ‘Ophelia’ (2024) with the support of the backing singers. After ‘Queen Of Space & Time’ (2023) the singers left the stage to the trio who indulged in an extended “free for all” version of ‘Nothing’s Changing’ (from ‘Tascam Tapes’, 2020) as a set closer.

Any worries about a premature end to the gig were soon dispelled by a romp through ‘Rosita’ (2023) which must have lasted for 15-20 minutes, as Pablo went for an extended walkabout through the audience, pausing at the bar for a quick shot in the process!

It’s encouraging that DeWolff’s UK shows are now attracting audiences in their hundreds (it’s only a handful of years since I witnessed them play in Camden’s tiny Black Heart) and not difficult to understand why their Dutch fans turn out in their thousands. The bond between the group and its followers is a strong one and I feel certain that DeWolff will hit our shores again before too many months have passed; make sure that you’re ready for them!

Setlists:

S – Other Side; Trouble Follows Me; Nobody’s Business; Black Crow; Come
On, Come In; Hold.

DeW – Night Train; Heart Stopping Kinda Show; Natural Woman; Will O’ The
Wisp; Out On The Town; Snowbird; R U My Savior; Ophelia; Queen
Of Space & Time; Nothing’s Changing; Rosita.

Review: Gary Smith
Photos: Bruce Biege