Bedford Esquires Thirst Club Saturday 13 Mar 2004.
THE ROCK FINAL
SUMMERFALL– A band worth a second chance, they seemed so much better this time. The first time I saw them I was surprised they won their heat compared to the strength of some of the other bands, but this time they won me over. Their fans make up most of the crowd, fastly swarming round at the front like looking at a disease through a microscope. These Bedford Modern artists put on a really confident performance with good material, good guitar work and instrumentation demonstrating skill and a polished sound. Each of the band members has a microphone and shares parts in the singing, creating a widely accessible sound that you could imagine even a radio station wanting to give airplay. – a kind of well executed Rock….with balls, even their drummer has a mouth-piece and uses a Death like growling edge to his particular vocals – fantastic! And what a great front-man as well, engaging the crowd with his on stage personality. It’s strange that it took a second helping of this band to win me over. They were the youngest on the bill and stayed to the end, showing respect in supporting the other bands – certainly commendable and a most promising band.
DELICATE CHILDREN– The Delly’s had the heaviest sound of the bands playing this night; that’s not to say there’s an absence of subtlety and melodic ingredient to their sound. They seem to have more lyrics to their vocals than the other bands and use some intricate guitar plucking instead of boring up/down strumming. A lot of this particular bands fans couldn’t get in on this sell out night which was a pity as they may have lost points on crowd participation but the band in no way sold out on performance. With their bassist bent over double, enticing an atmospheric sound from his instrument, definitely looking the part and the big bird him self – the lead singer with flapping movements to his great vocals, demonstrating intensity and emotion, although a bit of banter with their crowd could improve their gigs. They have gained quite a bit of live experience now and it would be good if they could get some sort of recording deal. The only way I can balance this out is to say that the only thing I didn’t like were the guitarists trainers so you can rely on the D.C. for a consistently good performance, and were worthy local contenders.
CUT IN QUARTERS– This band has its dynamics just right, all the band members pull their weight to form a proper band with an overall great sound. – Another great front-man who just sparkles on stage, also interacting with the crowd like a consummate professional – but hey where were those sexy, funky trousers from last time? I think I need to hear more of their stuff to get a better overall audio picture, but getting up there and performing wise – they cant really go wrong, along with Summerfall C.I.Q. are another band able to draw a huge tally on the door which included the singers bro. from ‘Diem’ who were a great act when they were going; I think with a little more live experience they can only go from strength to strength.
SPROKIT– A band that achieve an atmosphere of emotive atmospheric punk core incendiary of sound with out the use of a main entertaining front-man, no tricky bits of guitar intricacy and almost zero interaction with the crowd although sharing with us a new song that they hadn’t yet named. Saved till last and I can’t remember when this car part band had a headlining slot, which they utilized to full potential. Their Jazzy hat’ed drummer knocking out an intelligent rhythm of concentrated faultless percussion that would put a flock of knocking woodpeckers on acid to shame! Just when you think their bassist is their main vocal ingredient, he turns his back to the audience and the lead guitarist belts out some singing – I always like his vocals, it has a kind of manic intensity and a vitality that matches the strumming of that rather large guitar he plays. I think the bassist is probably more in charge of vocal frontery but to mess with our minds further I think they should let their drummer have a vocal turn – just to confuse us all further! Their material is a live experience in its self – you appreciate it when you are hearing it but forget it when its gone, saving it from being tackily catchy. I thought at one point, one of their songs was a New Road number or perhaps its because I’ve seen those bands too many times…. Although you can never get too much of Sprokit. I have to congratulate these guys in wining the Rock Final. I personally feel that some studio recording time would be fantastic for the band, once people get even more familiar with their sound and material from a source other than just seeing them live, then I just know their live gigs will be even more enjoyable. There’s only 3 people in this band, there great guys so I’m really happy for them and cant wait to hear any recordings they bring out in what I hope you will join me in saying- should be a bright future for them.
