Up first is NICK McCORMICK, from Leeds rockers HER ALIBI. He plays a short set of accomplished poppy rock numbers that include an excellent cover of Elvis Costello's "This Is Hell." He also shows off a couple of HER ALIBI tunes, with "Fluoxetine" standing out. His strong. emotional voice is a fine complement to a jagged guitar style.
London-based DRUGDEALER CHEERLEADER do an exciting sleaze rock thing with enthusiasm and style. The leather trousers, the foot on the monitor, the driving songs and low-slung bass guitar are a self-confident treat. Classic rock "Sanctuary" gets a very neat cut, paste and refresh treatment and the heart of AC/DC pulses through their heart-on-a-sleeve show. Musical ambitions are limited, but presentation is strong. With flamboyant rock openers like these, a cracking night is guaranteed.
AND NONE OF THEM KNEW THEY WERE ROBOTS came on as chalk to put a line under the cheese. They utterly steal it for the musophiles in the audience. Flailing and waving about like demented school kids, the ROBOTS are coaxing a stand-in bass player through the twisted chicanery of their spasmically wonderful tunes.
The results are ecstatically good. Manic and precise percussive twin guitar thrashing is punctuated with glistening melodic lilts and sudden changes of direction. Super fast tempos syncopate unexpectedly and roar off in a trail of plectrum smoke. The ROBOTS are huge value, even making a foray into Coldplay land with some very sweet arpeggios on the SG Epiphone and singing with Mark Linkous redolence through the guitar pick ups. Watch out for this lot.
COLOUR OF FIRE stride up with all the right hair gel and carefully dishevelled menswear. They look very cool and exude a whiff of "signed band" in the company of the less sophisticated performers around them. Their set is driving and sweetly sung. Two fine voices belt out their very well adjusted songs and faults there are none. For this onlooker,though, some very enthusiastic reviews ahead of the event had increased anticipation well beyond the night's achievement. COLOUR OF FIRE are trading on presence and attitude, and doing it with secure material. But the chemistry isn't adding up to the full adrenaline rush that this reviwer's looking for. In such crowded musical territory you need to be more than special.
BRODY step up next and make full use of Joseph's Well's extended stage. A friendly heckler is threatened by Danny North, a bass player who doesn't look like he often shares a seat on the bus. These boys are big and menacing, but they seize and hold the audience's undivided for the full duration with emotionally charged, melodic and well-made songs. Matt Duggan (singer) sounds like an alto choirboy and talks like a rough house scrapper. The sensitive tunes are laid up on a geologoically solid rock foundation, and they're heavy with authority and northern savvy.
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When these guys strike a pose or hurl a curse on stage, it's their own native language. They didn't need Mum's permission, and they're not doing it for the sake of fashion. In a fierce and consistent set, new song "Drift" is compelling. They're true to a heavy metal tradition by communicating the sense of the music, not just by imitating its' standard shapes. Dropped from a height into the seething vat of contemporary rock, Brody are going to make some very big waves. The girls in the crowd seemed to like 'em, too.
In such a rich and diverse rock show, CATYLYST rightly command the top billing. Musicianship, experience and personality shine through in every department. Chris May is the star at the centre, but the band are more than planets circling at a distance. Wally kicks his kit like Fred Dibnah doing cooling towers, and Jamie hurls his five-string bass about like an Eddie Stobart juggernaut. Dave flips in effortless riffs and the whole thing rises into something way bigger than a four-piece should be capable of.
Cunning sequencer material fills out the rawness with richer harmonies. The music is a mature synthesis of rock styles. The crowd can hear Foo Fighters and Metallica. I can hear Rainbow and Deep Purple. There are intelligent inflections from the wider territories of pop too. You can definitely hear Chris's satanic screams dividing the set into its' moody sections at regular intervals. It's CATYLYST alright. Blood vessels burst and the crowd go mental.
And the ALABAMA 3's RANTIN' RICHIE has been brooding and hovering all night as the resident DJ, zipping up the sonic temperatures with the breadth and depth of his musical choices. All independent venues shoudl have this kind of class and this kind of talent. The enthusiastic crowds that we had tonight would dare to come back for more.
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