Click here for photos from this show in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for photos of PVT at Music Fest NW 2012 in Portland, OR in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
On a dank rainy Tuesday on May 10th in Manchester, The Ruby Lounge came to life with Australian trio PVT (the band only allowed to trade outside the USA as "Pivot"). Consisting of Richard Pike on vocals, guitar, bass, and analogue synth, Laurence Pike on drums & drum pad, and Dave Miller laptop electronics. The turn out was moderate, but the people who did turn up seemed to genuinely appreciate the musical ideas of this band.
As the band took to the stage they seemed tired and a maybe a little hungover, but it took no time to realize they are not the kind of band to let this affect their performance. Still touring the material of their latest release, A Church With No Magic, the set composed mostly of the songs from this album and O Soundtrack My Heart.
The highlight of the set was a haunting opening synth line to O Soundtrack My Heart. The track "O Soundtrack My Heart" had elements of vocals, though they were very subtle. However, the songs from A Church With No Magic showcased unofficial frontman Richard Pike bringing the vocals very much to the fore, albeit sonically treated by the techno wizardry of Dave Miller, who loops sections of the bands music live and feeds it back, bringing spontaneous live sampling into the mix.
For the Jean Michelle Jarre-inspired "Fool In the Rain", the band completely reversed roles. Laurence swapped his drums for his brother’s Roland synth while Dave Miller sat behind the kit to provide washes of cymbals. This created a motorik medium paced slice of sci-fi inspired rock. There was no hiding the Vangelis/Bladerunner era reference.
As the band upped the pace, the crowd started to become more animated and began to nod and shuffle. To be fair, it’s hard not to due to the quality and strength of Laurence Pike’s drumming. They say your bands only as good as your drummer and in Pike PVT have a great drummer.
The band seemed to be gaining momentum and enjoying themselves, but the set seemed too short and the crowd shouted for more. For the encore, PVT returned and asked the crowd what they wanted to here, and although the Manchester accent seemed to somewhat confuse the Australian band, the message was clear: the crowd wanted a rendition of the ferocious "In the Blood". This extended into an epic extended jam bringing the evening to a close.
