Chingford four-piece The Rifles fired off round after round of indie rock ammunition at Rock City on Saturday night.
With their original lineup reunited and fourth album None the Wiser on the way in early 2014, the band gave it both barrels with Jamesque three-minute bursts of cheap-lager-can-in-the-air singalongs (lead singer Joel Stoker even has the Paul Weller haircut to show off his mod credentials with).
They’re far from the first outfit to perfect indie by numbers but they’ve become something of a cult band since their 2006 debut, despite guitar bands once again seeming to be going the way of the dinosaur.
After an explosive opening, two of the quartet of Rifles take a breather as Stoker and guitarist Lucas Crowther play a trio of acappella numbers before they return to their default setting of loud and fast beery bullets.
The stripped back acoustic interlude is something of a speciality for The Rifles, having released two strictly guitar-only albums, and their party piece breaks up the set nicely before they go out with a bang in a swift two-song encore.
Indie rock bands haven’t been outmoded long enough for this to be called some sort of revival but The Rifles are keeping the candle burning and they were certainly on target here.
Nottingham Post
