From what I'd heard, it didn't seem like going to watch a 'band' called Fuck Buttons would really be a good idea. (I try to be late, allowing myself to get sucked into fixing mp3 tags on my jukebox before we leave. This is no simple task. I have about 200 songs without track numbers, which means my player will play them in alphabetical order, which is annoying). But anyway...
Unfortunately, when we arrive there is the distinctive vibration of white noise coming through the walls of the Junction, echoing out into the street and mingling with the sound of traffic. The traffic sounds better, in that it at least carries an element of indeterminism which lends some interest and the possibility of a moment of quiet. Fuck Buttons allow no such respite. There is the briefest of pauses between tracks before the next huge noise. Underneath the wall we hear some primitive rhythms beaten out on drums, the noise is filtered via the laptop into other forms of noise while the boys scream into microphones and a Fisher PriceTM Karaoke toy.
It ends at last and we can finally leave behind this kindergarten of pointless noise children who hit things. We only had to put up with it for five minutes, but I think I'll try to avoid ever having to put up with it again. Scarecrows offer a refreshing contrast featuring music that sounds good at first, but they don't seem to know what to do with the few good ideas they have. For a couple of songs it is okay: decent grooves, amateurish drumming from the violin player, a good baseline. After the fourth song starts I realise that this is going to be more of the same until the end of the set. My attention fades, my mind wanders back to thinking about how many songs to which I could have assigned track numbers in this time...
King Alexander save the evening with their cheeky brand of shrieking shouty college punk mixed with that 1994 guitar pop sound. Which is good, because Ack Ack Ack are a bit, well strange and not that exciting (no web site, but mp3 here). Sure, they are loud but the ideas again are few and the singing from inside a gas mask is a bit lame. In fact the guitars aren't loud enough in my opinion, yet another one of these bands that tries to play metal without heavy guitars and ends up sounding thin and harsh. The drummer's displeasure at the performance is evident at the end of the set when he throws his cymbals angrily behind him. I didn't sense many mistakes, in fact the drummer is incredible, but the teacher in me wants to write could try harder, lots of enthusiasm, needs direction.