REVIEW: Bonafide @ The Live Rooms, Chester

If you’re a follower of the Swedish rock ‘n’ roll scene then what an extravaganza this was!

Since living in Chester as a student I’ve been to The Live Rooms a few times and I like it a lot as a venue as it’s on the smaller side, but it still has an upstairs balcony if the downstairs is too crowded.

When Hardcore Superstar announced a UK tour and that Chester was a date I could not have been happier. Travelling to Manchester a lot for gigs really takes its toll on my bank balance and with it being in The Live Rooms, I already knew the venue rather well.

Hardcore Superstar brought over two Swedish support bands of which the second I shall be reviewing.

After the first band, Nitrodive, had finished playing, the venue had slowly started to fill up and I could already tell that people were excited and curious for Bonafide to come on. The venue wasn’t as busy as I’d hoped, but the tour had been in Manchester the previous Saturday and as that date was announced before Chester, I would assume that people had possibly bought tickets for that one first.

Anyway, back to Bonafide! They’re a four-piece classic rock ‘n’ roll band from Malmö, Sweden with Pontus Snibb on vocals and guitar, Anders Rosell on guitar, Martin Ekelund on bass and Niklas Matsson on drums. I hadn’t heard of them before but had listened to a few songs prior to the show and was looking forward to their set.

They opened up with ‘Doing The Pretty’ but early on into the song the bass player, Ekelund, left the stage briefly. The band continued on with the song and the sound quality seemed good so I was wondering what was so wrong that the bass player needed to sort out. They then went into ‘Hold Down The Fort’ and continued to play another two songs without any technical issues.

During these songs there was a man in front of me who knew every word to every song and it was obvious that this was going to be the highlight of his night. After the first song he held out his hand asking for the bassist’s pick but Ekelund kicked the pick into the air and caught it. My first reaction to that was to assume that he needed the pick for the next song and then if he had no more use for it, he’d hand the pick to the fan. Ekelund did use the pick for the next song but afterwards, he used a different pick and did not hand the previous one to the gentleman in front of me.

After the fifth song ended, Ekelund proceeds to speak into his microphone and irritably says “Is there no light this side of the stage? Am I not in the fucking band?!” There was a brief pause from the audience as we didn’t know whether to cheer blindly as a band member had said something or to mutter amongst ourselves about the bassist’s attitude.

The band then went straight into ’50/50′ and during the song a red light on Ekelund’s side of the stage had come on. After the song ended Ekelund then proceeded to knock the red light with the head of his bass (ignoring to strike the other three lights of which were clear lights) and complained again but I couldn’t make out what he said.

For the next song the singer, Snibb, moved to Ekelund’s position for a large proportion of the song which was on our right-hand side. I assumed this was to appease Ekelund as he could then stand under the clear lights and be seen clearly by the crowd. However, Ekelund spent most of his time in front of the drummer with his back to the crowd.

For their eighth song the band members had moved back to their respective positions and by this time the crowd were really enjoying themselves and the songs were going down great.

For their ninth and final track they played ‘Fill Your Head With Rock’ which is a classic sing-a-long rock tune. When Snibb got the crowd to sing the lines back to him he sang to us without the use of his microphone and that really showed us what a powerful vocal he has.

Overall the set was very enjoyable and I’m already listening to their songs in my own time. Snibb is a charismatic frontman even though he is restrained by playing the guitar and has clear vocals that for someone like myself who didn’t know their songs I understood the majority of the lyrics. The guitarist, Rosell, was technically good and the drummer, Matsson, was constantly in time.

The only downside to the set was the attention seeking bass player who was more concerned with the lighting above him than putting on a good show. I would see them again if they were to play near me but I would be on the look-out for the bass player being a diva. I feel rather sorry for the rest of the band having to deal with him playing up in public.