Material: The Revies are a fun combination of surf, garage and Mexi-Cali elements, amplified by a wonderful combination of boutique Orange and Fender amps. “Estela” has something of a Tejano rhythm that transitions to a mod-rock beat while “All I Need” has a SoCal island sound. “Ride On” is arguably one of the more rock/metal songs in the set. The lyrics to “Back to Mexico” appear to be autobiographical, “Whole crowd is goin’ wild/ Cause this amigo’s got some style/Not the best thing to be so loud/Well how you gonna hide when you got this sound?!”
Musicianship: The band excels at dropping to guitar and vocal only or lead guitar and drums only for songs like “Bohemia” and “All I Need.” This builds tension and accentuates the verses. The band breaks from the sparseness to a full arrangement on songs like “Estela.” Frontman Kane incorporates sweet harmonics on this song.
Unfortunately at this show he seemed to suffer from a bad cable connection by the time the band covered Sublime’s “Santeria.” However, by the end of the set the lead guitar finally came through. The great pop bass lines from Carlos really dominate the music on songs like “Twister” and “Silhouette.”
On “Back To Mexico” Syme merges an interesting rhythm change into a standard perfect breakdown. He just as easily veers to ska rhythms, applying sticks to rims on “All I Need.”
Performance: The four-piece incorporated enough covers to keep the audience entertained and singing along. Etienne does not shy from asking for requests, and the band does a solid job of replicating classic rock songs. Etienne wows the audience by nailing his vocal interpretation of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” giving it a hint of Chris Cornell. At points both Etienne and Carlos struggled to be heard on the mics, but they both maintained the high-energy performance throughout and those harmonies finally came through on “All I Need,” a dedication to a fan.
Summary: While the Revies take a moment between songs to address technical issues, they still seem to struggle with the dynamics of the overall band on the lead guitar sections. Working on this could resolve issues with vocal strain, which may also be alleviated by incorporating a ballad in the set in place of back-to-back aggressive vocal numbers.
The Players: Etienne Rosas, vocals, rhythm guitar; Max Kane, lead guitar; James Syme, drums; Carlos Rosas, bass.
Photo by Mathias Fau
Venue: The Mint
City: Los Angeles, CA
Contact: [email protected]
Web: therevies.bandcamp.com
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