Panic Room, Bilston Robin 2, 19th June 2011

I love Bilston Robin 2 as a venue. With excellent sound and lighting, a decent-sized stage, and a hotel right next door it doesn’t have the reputation as one of the nation’s best rock clubs for nothing. And they always draw a sizeable crowd; just about every band I’ve seen there plays to more people that at equivalent venues elsewhere, even on a Sunday night. And tonight was a very good crowd indeed.

Support was David R Black, the alternative rock power-trio I’d seen supporting in Manchester earlier in the year. I enjoyed their set a lot more than the first time round, helped by the vastly superior sound of a proper rock venue rather than a toilet of a nightclub. While I still find their mix of metal and indie is a bit generic, they were both tight and energetic, and made a good warm-up for the headliners.

I’ve seen some great gigs by Panic Room, especially in the past twelve months, but this performance took things to another level, even for them. They played with an incredible power and intensity, but without sacrificing subtlety or finesse. If this is prog-rock, then it’s with the emphasis very much on the word rock. The whole band gave strong performances; Paul Davies was on particularly good form on lead guitar with some shredding solos and melodic fills, Jon Edwards’ keys added swathes of colour, and Yatim Halimi and Gavin Griffiths are possibly the best rhythm section in any band at this level. Not that there was any hint of self-indulgence; despite all being virtuoso musicians they never spoil the songs by unnecessary overplaying.

Finally Anne-Marie Helder gave the performance of her life, and showed just why she was voted best female vocalist by readers of Classic Rock Presents Prog. This was one of those gigs with feedback between the energy and enthusiasm on stage and in the audience; this is what live music is all about, an experience you can’t repeat by sitting at home and listening to a CD.

Setwise the band took aim at the future by opening with the powerful twin-guitar “Song for Tomorrow”, an as-yet unrecorded song premiered back in February. After that, the bulk of their 100-minute set came from their second album “Satellite”, including a very entertaining rendition of the slightly bonkers “I Am A Cat”. A second new song, “Promises” came over very powerfully indeed, and one unexpected surprise was a great full band version of “Exodus”, a song from Anne-Marie’s solo EP “The Contact”. Very little from their debut “Visionary Position”, though I hope some of those songs are merely being rested rather than retired altogether. With the band going into the studio to record a new album in November this may be the last outing for the set they’ve been playing for the last couple of years.  The strength of the new material certainly augers well for the future.

Since the first time I saw Panic Room in Lydney back in 2008 I’ve watched this band get better and better as a live act. I’ve always thought their energetic mix of prog, hard rock, folk, jazz and pop has the potential to cross over to wider audiences beyond the prog ghetto, and on the basis of performance like this one, they deserve to be playing on far bigger stages.