2 Gig Reviews In One

I had a weekend of going out, seeing lots of small new bands, some local, some seemingly travelling miles for no reason. At The Croft this Friday:

Grand Rose Band: They said: "Bathonians playing head swaying, REM style melodies with Led Zep/Bowie undertones. Bristol should jump up and pay attention" We only saw half of their last song so I don't know... Didn't look that great - by which I mean the music was sterile and kinda boring, not that the actual band member themselves (they were your usual greasy pub-rock-band-looking types), but you know, they were enjoying themselves, although the crowd stayed at a safe distance. (http://www.grandroseband.com)

Following them was a band from Wrexham called Cream Tangerine. They said: "Grunge giants of Wrexham who have a fine line in multi part vocals, intense choruses and unforgettable riffs. There is no way you will be able to stand still." (http://www.creamtangerine.org). We stood still. And nodded at the occasional good bits, which tended to be the beginning and the end. Oh, and the bits between the absolutely forgettable riffs and bland choruses. I could go on, but you need to make up your own mind really. They do have a good line in multi-part vocals, though I wished the second guitarist was also the main singer.

The highlight of the evening were The Playwrights. They said: "Purveyors of some of the finest avant garde, stop-start guitar rock this side of the grave, this much loved Bristol outfit come to this after a hard year of gigging nationwide. Their last gig with their current bassist, so they will want to make it an occasion to remember." No I don't know what stop-start guitar rock is, but I chatted to some one about it and he said it was the 'angular rhythms' that made it. Which means the way the play punky stuff in 9/8 time. With a cornet. And cowbell. They were just fantastic, energetic, different and interesting. (http://www.theplaywrights.co.uk)

The Mayors of A. R. C. appeared to be drunk. Which made them rubbish. I didn't find them funny, original or good in any way whatsoever. They said: "Managing to be both funked to the max and languidly lazy, the Mayors combine ska, hip hop and stoner rock, with lashings of Portuguese rap. The Orishas meets Goldie Looking Chain." And they don't even have a web site! How modern are they!

At Sausage Time at the Arc Bar last night, after we got past the first test of the Jamaican guy downstairs telling everyone the night didn't exist ('are you fick or summink?' 'why don't you fuck off') there were some really interesting examples of 'what the kids are doing'.

Well I say interesting, the music... wasn't, but it's interesting to see what people are trying to do. Tailfly - sparkling epic rock - Sparkling, because they use a little xylophone in some of their songs. Epic, because they do long, slow (fine line towards boring) tunes and Rock? I don't know where that came from, maybe because they have guitars and occasional loud bits, a la Mogwai / Godspeed etc, both of whom do it better, but they're only young, and they suffered from being crammed into a tiny space which caused lots of feedback fun for the soundman. On the other hand, their final tune was a real corker, with an excellent big keyboard bassline and fast drums... (http://www.tailfly4.com)

Panda Emulation (8 bit supernaturalists), suffered from lack of interest. Loops and beats are all well and good, but even the lo-fi (hence 8-bit) keyboards couldn't save the fact these boys were just using a couple of trackers and a desktop. I know this could open me up for criticism, especially as I'm not famed for being able to go out and play my stuff live, but I like to have more structure in my music. The problem with that, I guess is that it's trying to apply rules to what good music is again, and anyone who's heard 20th century modernism (and post-modernism) knows that when you do that, horrible things happen as a reaction! (http://www.pandaemulation.co.uk)

Idlab (evil machine sounds) got three drunk people out of the crowd to play little bird whistles, which he sampled and turned into white noise, gradually, with a lot of fucked-upness, e-bowed bass samples until he overdrove the speakers and then he stopped. Remember what I said above? Well that's what he did. But at least it was really experimental, more like a work of art than a gig! (http://www.idlab.org.uk)

Expect much more of this, as I try and work out what the hell everyone's up to in the city at the moment, and try to work out where I fit in...