Gig Review: The Damn Truth, July 21, 2023, Islington O2 Academy 2

Gig Review: The Damn Truth, July 21, 2023, Islington O2 Academy 2

By Simon Green

Let’s face it, the music business is full of hyperbole and reviewers are no exception. If you relied on some of the nonsense spouted about some very average bands to decide where to spend your hard earned, you’d be frequently disappointed as well as surprised about how many tin ears there are outside of the Wizard of Oz.

With that in mind, no pinch of salt required, it has to be said that The Damn Truth are damn good! They were pretty lively when I saw them last year supporting King King and this time around, they erupted onto the small stage at the O2 Academy 2 with a charismatic energy that instantly engaged the audience. Earlier, the band had hustled past the queue into the venue, with singer Lee La Baum commenting “it’s going to be loud” in passing. It was!

What sets this band apart is that they not only play loud, raucous rock with a confident swagger but have enough great songs to really get the juices going. These have enough complexity and dynamics in the arrangements to ensure that, unlike many other acts that go all out for power, the audience are not bludgeoned and bored into submission by endless power chords and screaming, tuneless vocals. Lee Baum on lead vocals has a powerful voice that can wail when required but mostly brings out the melodic content of their songs.

Opening with an absolute banger in the form of ‘This Is Who We Are Now’, the opening track to their 2021 album Now or Nowhere, displayed the confidence of the four-piece. It clearly helps if you know that you have more aces up your sleeve. This track sums up the band at their best, a chiming guitar motif and crashing chords over the top of an impossibly quick sustained drum pattern from Dave Traina, created anticipation before the bass and vocals came in and the guitars changed to a really neat set of chord sequences underpinning the verse; when the big melodic chorus came in, the backing became quieter and more intricate, fast runs emphasising the dynamics of the song rather than the band taking the obvious route and going totally hell for leather. The counterpoint melody of the middle eight took it lower still before a superb, controlled guitar solo increased the energy ahead of a blitzkrieg ending to take the adrenalin level up another notch. Breathless stuff!

Watching The Damn Truth is a bit like watching a film in an i-Max cinema in that you have to really keep up with the action to ensure you don’t miss anything; while you’re looking at Tom Shemer taking a solo stage left, Lee Baum and bassist PY Letellier are back to back throwing shapes together; as soon as you’ve taken this is in, the singer is centre stage again and the guitarist and bassist are up to some shenanigans stage right. The band were in constant motion throughout the set. It was exhausting just watching the performance, which primarily featured numbers from their two studio albums Now or Nowhere and Devilish Folk.

By the time The Damn Truth finished their double encore of ‘Love is Blindness’ and ‘Heart is Cold’ the audience was buzzing and it was big smiles all around. Definitely a band to catch for lovers of classic rock. No hype!

The Damn Truth Tour Dates See Here