Reef with support from These Wicked Rivers

The Drill, Lincoln

Thursday, October 22, 2026

These Wicked Rivers

You don’t need to be Mystic Meg doing her thang on the National Lottery (yep, we’re goin’ full nineties nostalgia here) to know tonight’s gonna be a good show. TWR as the support act? Whaaaat???? These guys just released a Number One album crying out loud. The Drill is already pretty much full for these self-styled bringers of ‘heavy-blues-wizard-rock’. And this set sure is… well… magical. On the stage there are smiles, spinning and insane keys which lift this set subtly but decisively. We got voodoo rockin’ guitars. Precision beats. Basslines that preach to and convert the damned. Vocals that stir your soul. And them there keys readers… oooof. ‘Black Gold’ opens the set with a pumping groove and enticing hooks. New album opener ‘Ain’t No Smoke’ lays down the law with less speed, but heftier riffs, that are too much on the side of menacing to be romanticised as ‘breath-taking’. Nope – these kneel on your chest and make breathing a little less easy. TWR write and play songs that you hear and feel. Listening to the Gospel of These Wicked Rivers ain’t gonna get ya a permanent spot in Heaven – but it’ll give you a little taste for as long as these guys are on stage.

Reef

Slap bang in the middle of the glorious nineties you couldn’t move for people replying in the affirmative to any request – absolutely anything – with a gleeful ‘alriiyyyyyyyyyyytttaaaahhhh’. ‘Place Your Hands’ is still a radio regular. And yet Reef’s best known song defines neither their sound nor their vibe. It’s clear in Lincoln tonight that this is a band whose 66.5 million-streamed timeless banger (which they play in the centre of their set) brings back those pre social media era thrills. When there was literally no evidence of what you got up to in the park on a Friday night – because everyone was too ploughed on Diamond White to remember anything. Vaping? You got to grips with an Embassy. Music? Real mate. This is right back when ‘Terminator Two’ was a fucking awesome film and not a fucking terrifying prediction coming rapidly true. And that’s kinda the point of this history lesson, kids. Because while Reef could plonk audiences into a ‘Best Of’ type tour, they have far too much integrity and even more good music for that. This isn’t a night of nostalgia. This is show by a band who know how to write a song, and continue to pen some serious slabs of groove and funk/blues fusion. All of which are sung by a lead singer who sounds like he snacks on scouring pads. Reef are a band that can pull in a crowd on the strength of their lesser known releases, let alone their nineties anthem. Sure, there are plenty of songs tonight that make you go, ‘I remember this one!!!’ (‘Naked’, ‘Come Back Brighter’, Summer’s In Bloom’). But there’s also deeper dives (‘Mellow’ which frontman Gary introduces as the first song he and bassist Jack wrote together and recorded properly), more recent stuff (‘Refugee’, ‘Best of Me’) and a coupla covers. And we’re not talking just any covers. Wanna guess? You’ll never guess. “Ending” their set with AC/DC’s ‘T.N.T.’ then starting their encore with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’. And both are absolutely banging. As is often the case, there is someone else who can summarise proceedings far better than yer girl can. And tonight this literary legend is the guy yelling at his mate across the car park as we make our way to our respective vehicles… ‘That was a bit good wasn’t it??!!!’ And that gig seriously was.