Smoke rock

The fug of smoke in the air above the crowd does nothing to dispel the Southern Californians’ ‘stoner rock’ reputation. Nebula play the ‘electric blues,’ a thick wall of acid-soaked country rock and battered metal. They’ve got an end-of-the-’60s-rockin’-on-into-the-’70s, Almost Famous aesthetic; the bass player’s the spit of Tom Petty, the lead singer relentlessly strums a Creedence revival, while the long-haired drummer and newly-added lead guitarist supply thunderous metal riffs.

The music has a density which some may feel is a bit, er, bloated, but at times, like when the pale lead singer glides through the air with an iconic jump from a drum-stack that would look great in slo-mo, Nebula have just enough stage-energy to keep the show from slumping to the floor.

It takes a while, but Nebula eventually manage to shake the audience out of their lethargy with ‘All the Way’ from their last album Charged, a succession of Hendrix-like guitar spasms and drawled vocals.

If the pace slackens somewhat with leaden tracks like ‘Elevation’, the psychedelic astral projection of ‘Into The Sun’ gets on the same wavelength as the crowd. Returning for the encore with spliffs lit, Nebula’s enjoyable, if slightly anaesthetised, vibe prevails.