Vigil Of War, Zachary Kibbee, The Reinforcements - Bannerman’s Edinburgh 6th April 2023

Local heroes, The Reinforcements (formerly known as Richy Neill & The Reinforcements) opened the show, as they often do at this venue; Christian Kimmett, the main man at Bannerman’s, currently plays bass in the band. Richy is a likeable frontman and the band have crafted a pretty good set which is full of catchy songs with a bit of substance to them. Their latest single ‘Opportunist’ is a good one and it was released digitally just hours after the gig. It’s well worth checking out and has some exceptionally good artwork to go with it. They also played one new song that was making its first appearance outside of the rehearsal room and they trailed a forthcoming single called, I think, ‘Wondering’, so there’s much more to look forward to from these guys.

You can’t miss Zachary Kibbee in this place, as the tall, hairy California resident would stand out even if he wasn’t wearing a bright white leather jacket. He’s dodging LA’s sunshine for a UK Spring tour to promote his brand-new album ‘Faking Light’ and he’s also scheduled to appear at HRH Blues later this month. His music covers many spheres of blues and americana and is often funked-up and sunny as he’s a very upbeat and likeable performer. Tonight, he plays electric guitar and sings and is accompanied only by Steve on drums, although they do seem to have some subtle pre-recorded musical help. Personally, I have no problem with that at all, as it allows Zach to show off his songs in their rightful format in a cost-effective way, rather than reverting to an acoustic approximation.

The songs from the new album sound great, especially the opening track ‘Baby, Have No Fear’ which fizzes along nicely in a style reminiscent of The Killers, at times. With their name on it, this song would already be on heavy rotation all around the world but Zach has to put in a lot more effort to be heard, and you definitely won’t find Brandon Flowers in a small room under Edinburgh’s Old Town any time soon. There is a lovely chiming guitar sound on ‘I Won’t Forget You’ and both the album and the set feature a very pleasant cover of Tal Bachman’s ‘She’s So High’ – a song which was absolutely omnipresent in 1999 (it’s the one that some might remember that namechecks Cleopatra, Joan of Arc and Aphrodite).

Most folks will know Zach from the bands Bullets and Octane and The Mercury Riots but he is also quite prolific in the world of TV and film scores. Tonight, he plays ‘Hey Now’ from the US version of Shameless and, after a good-natured heckle from the crowd, he does confess to having a track on a Scooby Doo movie from last year, although sadly, we’ll need to watch the movie to hear it as it didn’t make tonight’s set-list. Happily, he does play ‘Readin’ Your Will’ which is an excellent fuzzy throwback to the 2014 EP ‘Little Clocks’ and is his most streamed song on Spotify with over 1 million plays.

Vigil of War bring a super-cool and punky LA vibe to the room, despite the effects of jet-lag and cool weather depriving Alicia of sleep. She still cuts a striking figure and tonight accessorises her trademark military cap with a tight tartan jacket obtained from a local store. After a four-year absence, there is a slightly modified version of the band on show tonight. Kiki Wong is currently on maternity leave, so Chris Wilson, who was on drums the last time they were here, starts on bass for one song before switching to guitar. Alicia picks up bass duties from there and, of course, she has also joined Dragonforce as a bass player since she was last here, so she’s got that very well covered and probably enjoys playing at a slightly less-frantic pace, although it’s still pretty lively. Later on, Chris gets back behind the kit for two numbers to allow Kyle Abbot to step out on guitar and show us his stripper-style mini-kilt, also obtained locally, but definitely designed for the ladies. In view of its very short hem-line, it’s probably wise that he wears the kilt on top of skinny jeans, as if he’d gone full-on free willy style as us locals prefer, the front row might have had a face full of meat and two veg!

The band blast through some of their best tunes, including ‘Hurricane’, ‘Legacy Remains’ and an especially impressive ‘Stitch Me Up’. The combination of energetic and charismatic players with an iconic and spunky front-woman reminded me of a Juliette (Lewis) & the Licks performance from a few years ago (Alicia has a few TV and movie appearances to her credit too). Their most recent single ‘Domino’ is an obvious highlight. It starts with a bit of Thin Lizzy-like dual guitar and then benefits from a deft and delicate guitar solo from ‘Sugar’ Shane Taylor, who otherwise spends the set ripping out some high-tempo guitar histrionics. Near the end of the set, Alicia takes off the bass guitar and the jacket so that she can fully express herself on ‘Choke’ and ‘Bite the Bullet’ before the band depart, leaving a breathless audience shouting for more.

It really was a pleasure to witness this very welcome return visit. As Alicia explained, they’re a DIY band and have to book all of their own gigs and travel so it’s a good effort on their part to get here. Hopefully their merchandise sales will have helped recoup some costs and they seemed to be selling plenty of CDs and one-of-a-king polaroid pictures. They had some nice T-shirts too, but this was the first time I had noticed an escalating price range for larger sizes; Small to XL were £25 but rising to £27 for 2XL and £30 for 3XL in what a well-padded pal called ‘fat bastard tax’! They were stylish t-shirts though, although perhaps best suited to the wallets of those who had not eaten all the pies before the gig.