Saturday 15th.March 2003, Bedford Esquires.
REVIEW TWO.
Punk, for me still refers to 1977. No band
today can claim to have the raw energy, controversy, or downright fury of 'The Sex Pistols',
'Ramones', 'The Damned', or any of the original wave. But, as always, Bedfordshire is trying
to prove me wrong. The 'Punk' final of the Battle of the Bands showed four upstarts trying
to do just that.
Entering Esquires at about half eight, we're subjected to KAMORA. A band so punk they sing about
bleaching their hair. Rock. I cant pretend I'd heard anything good about these before hand. But
with tight melodies, and some ska influences popping through now and again, they make a passable
racket, despite Andrew W K a-like backing vocals. But surely a band with three guitars should
have a little more drive, and that cover of 'Build Me Up Buttercup' was desecration of the highest
order.
Next up, SPROKIT. Taking the stage to the begining of 'War Of The Worlds' by Jeff Wayne blasting
out of an old school ghetto blaster, the Sprokit boys exude an air of confidence. And most deserved.
Blasting through old favourite - 'Dr. Evil', they strut around the stage like they own it, and tonight
, we get the feeling they might well do! As the set goes on, though, despite an emo-core newie, with
backing screaming, and a Rancid cover, the pace drops a little, perhaps their new found confidence and
punk credentials not quite matching their stamina. Nonetheless, a great performance, and a huge
improvement for the Sprokit kids.
BORDERLINE seemed firm favourites to win. Their more influenced, hard pop punk sound contrasted well
with the more teen punky, 3 chord ethics of the rest of the evening. With their great grasp of melodies,
on many occasions, the backing vocals adding significantly to the overall sound, the Esquires crowd
lapped it up, bouncing away at quite a pace. Mid set highlight of Jimmy Eat World's - 'The Middle', played
arguably better than Jimmy Eat World, contrasted well with their own material, and a short cover of Eminem's
- 'Lose Yourself'. If only they'd played the whole thing... By the end of the set, the pit was a sweaty,
tired mess, having been thoroughly rocked.
After this, THE U.G.'s seemed little more than a warm down. With all the right notes in all the right places,
their Blink182 meets The Buzzcocks (at least as far as I could see) influenced sound would, on another night,
have gone down well. As it was, with a tired audience, many of whom had already decided on their winners,
it was little more than a backing tape. Added to that, an apparent lack of enthusiasm from the band, delivered
little in the way of visual excitement.
So in the end who won? The U.G.'s A suprise? Definitely. But with judges criteria doubtlessly more in tune with
quality of music than that of the punters, who voted for the, in my opinion, more exciting Sprokit.
Review by Doze. www.bedfordmetal.co.uk
I was quite looking forward to this gig, the order line up was surprising, but a good line up all the same.
It was the most confident I’ve seen KAMORA on stage – they are getting more support now. Their front man was doing some funky Ska skanking on stage, its good to see a bit of movement rather than a static performance, which can be a bit tiresome.
It was also good to see the song ‘Women’ performed live, because the vocals are so fast and rely on two singers vocally playing off each other – this must take a bit of rehearsing, in fact the other person singing ‘Dim’ looked quite the part this time, having changed his style somewhat. His new stage look, I thought was pretty cool, although conversely ‘Jim’ the other guitarist appeared to go the other way image wise, under his woolly hat, and their bassist looking as if he wasn’t trying to fit in with any image at all. The bands look was a part of the competition, so I just thought I’d mention it.
Musically though they were fine – a basic sound but o.k.. One of the guitars used for the gig was loaned from the group ‘ The Wans’. Not I’ll grant you sounding too punky, but their band does have a particularly good singer and the tunes them selves have a consistently ageless quality.
I should mention as well that this was Joe’s last gig on drums with the band.
This is the first time I’ve reviewed SPROKIT, they seem quite difficult to describe, although their melodic old school punk style certainly doesn’t defy definition, they have a good drummer, who can beat out a fast pace rhythm that fits in quite well with their style of music
It’s another band that surprises you how such a good, tight sound can come from just 3 players. Their drummer – (Boyd from Neighbours?) knocked out a speedy rhythm throughout, gaining the band a fair crowd reaction.
Both bass and lead work are musically skilled enough with Joey their guitarist doing these lolloping movements on stage.
They consistently seem to go down well each gig, and have played Esq. a few times now, and have other gigs lined up to come, their appeal being their mix of emo,pop,and ska styles but predominantly a traditional punk influence I quite like this band, they deserve to do well because I’ve noticed that they are clearly demonstrating improvement with each performance.
O.k. I’ll hold my hand up and admit that I wanted BORDERLINE to win the competition. I’ve been an appreciator of this band for a few years now, having conversed with each member (and their rodies) at some point, their all top people and musicians too.
I was glad to see ‘rugby topped’ Joe didn’t seem too worn out after drumming for the first band.
They started with ‘Part Time Rebel’ – a song which straight away shows the crowd how fast, loud and energetic they can perform, which got the crowd going at once. It was mentioned in the loca, that they have a member of the band also in Insomnia, - this is not the case, but Dan the guitarist does also hail from Unitus and seemed to enjoy what he was doing in the set and showed his skills in this gig. They have some exceptionally good tunes and a great emo melodic pop punk sound, which makes them an entertaining live band; they can achieve songs both with a harmonised emotional quality like ‘Pile Up’ for example and songs with a melodic fast energy.
I’ve seen THE U.G.’s put on a good opening performance before, and now it seems they have quickly risen to the ranks of headliners.
I’m not sure how many fans they drew in who are familiar to their stuff, - as yet they haven’t been going that long and haven’t any c.d. recordings out for the crowd to get used to.
Each player comes together to produce a unison of professional sound, there doesn’t seem to be much diversity in their material and I heard a few people in the audience who were not all that impressed with them. I think that as soon as people get more familiar with the songs, they will head line with more eminence, and the band’s sound is good enough to warrant this.
For the raised door entry that was quite a quality gig. I wasn’t too sure about any of the bands choice of covers which is part of this competition, and you can guarantee the crowd response will be even greater for the bands in the ‘Metal’ final coming up.
The U.G’s go through to the final on 12th April.
Review by Keith www.bedfordmetal.co.uk