Little Thief, Media Blackout, No One Famous.

Bedford Esquires Lev 2. 1st February 2007.

When I was doing my GCSE’s we had careers advice. You know what I’m talking about. Advice on job interviews, that kind of thing. I was taught that first impressions are the most important because they last. So when I walked in on the first band tonight I had to wonder if maybe they missed out on those sessions to practise on their guitar. At first sight, mono-haired Northampton youngsters, NO ONE FAMOUS, could so easily be put into the category of teenage angst-punks. But as I listened on I could hear (through the equally mono-tone guitars) moments of Billy Talent-like vocals, powerful drumming (at this point we’re onto a winner) and some tight, intelligent playing. However there are overriding moments in No One Famous’ performance tonight that prove to me what my tutors had to say. First impressions are usually right. Unfortunately, for a band that already have an EP and t-shirts since their recent beginnings in winter 06, their lack of musically maturity let them down. If you want a t-shirt visit www.myspace.com/noonefamousband

For a first gig I thought MEDIA BLACKOUT did very well and all credit to them for their groovy opener which had me nodding my head in riff-rock approval! This band is all about the grunge, and citing all the heavy weights as influences, lead singer Lucas looks and sounds like Cobain reincarnate. The songs tonight marry the punk riffs of 'American Idiot' with the cool repetition of 'Can’t Get No Satisfaction', and the set plods and saunters along with an air of laziness. But in a good way. The best thing is that each member of Media Blackout is clearly playing from the same book: I’ve seen bands whose individual members are all under the impression they are in different bands, but here we have a solid unit of grunge rock. Highlight for me was the sound of Kalvin France, who despite powering through with QOTSA sounding solos, kept straight faced throughout tonight’s proceedings!

There is a huge part of me that hopes these two bands read this, because I really want to say to them –don’t gig until you’re absolutely ready! Maybe I have lost my reviewer’s hat and have donned that of a band developer, but I’d love to see these bands spend more time in a practise room, giving more thought to how they want to develop their sound and performance. This would be valuable to them (and us!).

Saviours of the night however are “just four lads who turn up and play” according to Ewan, front man of LITTLE THIEF. I would add the words ‘extremely talented’ in between ‘four’ and ‘lads’ because as they tear through their set, it is clear that in the short amount of time that this band have been around, they have come up with some of the best songs I have heard locally in a while. Each song is fantastic in its own right but firmly come under the Little Thief umbrella they are creating for themselves. These are songs created for having a good time to, and tonight they are serving that exact purpose. As the tightly packed bunch of bobbing heads ramble around about two inches away from the band, tonight feels just like one of the early Arctic Monkeys small shows. This is a band who have really thought about what they want to do and are delivering it with the professionalism you’d expect from a group who play up and down the country night after night. In my opinion they, like the Arctics, had better get used to it… Get ready to be passing around bootlegged demo CDs and for Ewan to have longer hair in a couple years! Their myspace even has a funky remix of my favourite track of the night ‘Nothing To Lose’.