The Modern, Eyelash, Portion, Aurora.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 21st October 2005.

Pictures by Suzy Cook

Young Milton Keynes Metallers AURORA open tonights show. The lads are making their first appearance here, and mixing a fusion of old skool seventies Heavy Rock with a bang up to date Metal sounds. Creating great walls of guitar noise, they made a good impression.

Esquires veterans PORTION follow and, as usual, their off the wall Muse influenced tunes go down well. It is hard to believe that in this fickle business, when bands split up so quickly, that it is nearly eight years since Portion first formed. In that time they have supported The Dears, Tim Booth and, perhaps most notably, The Libertines all here at Esquires.

The St Neots boys start off with their first ever single from umpteen years ago, 'The Big Red' and the 'oldies' come thick and fast - both 'Face Down' and (my favourite) 'Morphine' get an airing. A couple of new songs 'Easy' and 'Boy Scout' a followed by 'A Short Day', a track that was only finished the previous night!

The sleazy glam punk metal musings of EYELASH crash onto the stage. This two male / two female band engage in tremendous stage banter and with pile driving rhythms and female vocalists voices surf over it - sugary sweet one moment, screamingly seductively the next. However, if the songs 'Put Your Faith in Me' and 'Hang Me Out' render you excessively hyperactive, then 'White Trash' will act as a sedative as the deft playing of guest musician counters the bands frenzied playing.





Fresh from their support slot here at The Editors gig a couple of months ago, THE MODERN tonight headline. With images projected onto a screen that tied in with each song, they band are superslick cool! The look is as modern as their name and as self-assured as their music. With their fingers firmly on the pulse of an 80's electro-pop sound that is so evocative, it immediately sends you reeling with excitement! 'Suburban Culture' assaults the senses before 'Discotheque Francais' (Isn't that a Stereolab song? - Ed) raises your heartbeat with its intrinsic dynamism. The current single, 'Jane Falls Down' pulsates along and the set is brought to a close by my favourite, 'Tokyo Girls'.





The Modern's entire set demonstrates a reluctance to succumb to blandness, even for a split second, and one only has to inhale a minute of their music to become totally intoxicated - you have been warned!