The Bedford Athletic Rugby Club Wentworth drive, Putnoe Bedford. Friday 11th November 2005.
Blind Theory, Sand Buzzard, Last Man Standing, Scar My Eyes.
Heat 8
BLIND THEORY: - This band were up first as their drummer had to rush off on holiday literally straight after the gig. They were the main Bedford band tonight and are a pop punk band with influences from Blink 182, Less Than Jake, and Rancid.
Their bass player seems to do quite a bit of the shared singing, and at one point climbed up and leapt from speakers, these guys seem to put on a better show when they have a large stage like this to play on.
The other guitar singer who wore a bowler hat during the sound checks but decided not to during the gig, which I thought was a shame as it looked quite cool and would make a memorable trade mark for the bands image, he also ads a lot of crowd rousing while stooping over his instrument concentrating on his playing, some of the singing however sounds out of tune at times.
They put everything in to this gig, with a lot of poses, shape throwing, air jumps and holding guitars aloft! They have some strong song structures with some songs being quite melodic, while others have the ability to sound quite heavy, as they have a well-played good main guitarist. With drumstick in one hand and suitcase in the other their drummer then departed the venue after the set was complete to commence his holiday.
SAND BUZZARD: - Or maybe Leighton Buzzard from Sand Buzzard or Sand Buzzard from Leighton Buzzard? Well any way, they have influences from Green Day, Beatles and Jimmy Eat World and difficult to believe that such a great sound comes from just 3 band members!
They have a bloody good drummer, demonstrating a tight set and just sounded great when going in full swing. Room for improvement though. They seemed to be struggling at times on the laid back vocals which dragged at times, but had main parts of good singing and little guitar bursts hear and there, which again, sounded great when they got going.
Their Beatles influence showed with one of the trio's Abby road Beatles T-shirt. Perhaps not the biggest crowd reaction, but there were a lot of heads nodding in the crowd. A really good overall effort was put in by this outfit who have only quite recently formed. - so good Luck guys!
LAST MAN STANDING: - With influences from Taking back Sunday, Funeral For A Friend and just plain having a great time. They have a party pop punk in full swing sound and proved to be a band to mosh, rave and skank to and are a good swinging party band for a lot of tastes to move about to.
I saw this band the night before on the Esquires Thursday session and was not only impressed by L.M.S. as a performing band but also as a participating audience, moshing around and getting others to move around in support also, which shows a good attitude. They had quite a bit of good crowd interaction - chatting almost conference style with the audience between singing.
They had one of the best drummers of the night complete with Santa like woolly hat, constantly wriggling while playing a good bit of rhythmic speedy drumming.
They done rather a good cover of 'Stand by me', and managed to produce a good version of a song I don't particularly like.
The Guitarist seemed to be able to play his instrument at all angles and gave it a ska twang edge at times. He also covered up well the fact that the guitarists strings broke, not surprised there though, he hammers in to them well and used Blind Theory's trusty new white guitar to finish the set, which showed a good helpful attitude and that its all about the fun of the gig and not over competitiveness.
SCAR MY EYES:- Quite a last minute entry and one that provided the variety of the night in having a very heavy tight sound.
The singer has a great vocal range of different styles all done well, while also having a skilful enigmatic stage presence. With out being over confident, their glove and tie clad singer with eyes rolled skyward and varied vocals through his cordless mike, had a good command of the totally captive audience, he had them in his hands with all the crowd up to very front baying. A lot of people taking pictures with their mobiles seemed to be ever-present also.
The band also have an amazing bass line adding atmosphere and making you feel that this band could so easily be signed.
Towards the end the drummer bust his pedal and carried on playing without.
The above band won the 'Best new band' award and will play a gig on Friday 9th December and are well worth going to see. The winners of the heat were Last Man Standing.
Review by Keith www.bedfordmetal.co.uk