Review: Karen Hetherington
Situated in Wardour Street, Soho – a district synonymous for the discovery of some of the best music acts of all time, is the St Moritz Club. Founded by Armin “Sweety” Loetscher in 1960 with a view to catering for the increasing Swiss populous in London, it has a history spanning decades and associations with some of rocks finest and most iconic heroes. It could easily go unnoticed should you not deliberately seek it out and on Wednesday 7th December I did just that as I set off to the single launch of Daxx & Roxanes’ latest release “Ticket to Rock”.
The hugely atmospheric basement club is tucked away under a Swiss restaurant and I thought it appropriately fitting that this was the location of choice to host an event by a Swiss rock band who are on their way up.
On descending into the cavernous space, the place was already beginning to pack out – being an intimate venue, the reality was it didn’t take too many people to achieve this effect and upon my arrival the band were sound checking, while everyone else queued at the bar. I had been tipped off that they had to keep to a tight schedule and on cue, they kicked off their (way to short) set with Sugar Rush – a track I’ve grown particularly fond of and a sure fire crowd pleaser if ever there was one. The ensemble were revved up, ready to party and clearly enjoying the high octane rock which was threatening to lift the roof off the venue.
Slipping into the evocative “Leaving For Tomorrow”, lead singer Cedric introduced the song explaining that it was written about the bands departure from Switzerland. I was quite taken by this track on first hearing it a few weeks ago, it’s a reflective piece which is lyrically superb and demonstrates musical diversity and I found that I appreciated it even more on this occasion.
By the time the band unleashed “Ticket to Rock” on the assembled head bangers, it felt as though we were all packed into a pressure cooker which had just been turned up a notch as the crowd buzzed with energy and jostled for floor space. Anyone who is a regular Planet Rock listener may already be familiar with this track, it’s a catchy, hell raising, kick ass tune in typical Daxx & Roxane style and is sure to be the perfect selling piece for their upcoming album.
Staples of their set (from their EP 4 x 4) – “Girl Next Door” and “Wrong Side” featured in their brief performance and although I was expecting it, I was disappointed to see the band exit the stage so prematurely. As they did so the crowd murmured that they would love to see them play on bigger stages – this mirrored my own sentiments and I expressed this view when I covered their recent gig in the Amersham Arms.
Squeezing as much as possible into their brief set, they ran slightly over time and proved that if you don’t have much time to make an impression, you need to put on a really good show – Job done!
Daxx & Roxane rock like hell, but don’t just take my word for it… check out their amazing new music video for “Ticket to Rock” and catch them at Camden Rocks on 28th January 2017, if you can. Meanwhile, I’m on the countdown to the album release and I’m expecting great things – watch this space…
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