Thirst Club Esquires Bedford. Friday 1st April 2005.
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Henry And The Bleeders Their sound can be described as ‘funky punk’ it had a mixture of 50’s rock n roll blended in with the punk sound a few AC/DC style riffs added along with a few light blues overtones, but yea I would predominantly stick with ‘funky punk’. Their drummer – until it fell off, was wearing a head scarf similar to an old pantomime washer woman, which was great in creating the fact that they are not a band that takes themselves too seriously – which is a great attitude to have, instead of being too up them selves – which there not! Their brush headed singer who accentuated his hair for the occasion made a really good front man as well as just being a singer, not just going to the venue when they are playing but being seen at the other gigs as well, making me think that he makes the effort to support other bands and be more of a part of it all... Respect to him for that. Added to that was fun generated in engaging the audience, not that there were many in attendance on the night but it has to be said, this was the band that seemed to get the audience lively the most.
Long Shore Drift I’m pretty sure it was me that recommended to them taking part in this Bedford BOTB for these Dunstable rockers, they successfully won a competition in Luton and are a band that can produce a professional sounding delivery of music with a blues rock indy feel.
In opposition to the first outfit, this bands front man seemed to have toned down the spiky haired image from when I saw them last. They have quite a bit of experience and played a tight set with some good material, some of which being quite new and features on their newly released C.D. despite being competent musically, they didn’t seem to get the crowd response. Probably not many of their outside town fans could make it, so I'm blaming the crowd not the band. Even the much livelier and heavier next band deserved a better reaction than they actually got.
A late edition to the line-up, with a wide ranging blend of sounds experimented Enter Shikari are a band that hail from St. Albans and first impression is that they are trying to be emo, with passionately screamed vocals, but failing terribly (at being emo that is) that’s because they are whey to good to be emo much better and origional. When I thought I had just got used to their sound I was hearing other sounds blended in and just hat to get closer to see what was going on, could I really believe they were adding something similar to Ibiza music, can a band that verges on being a hardcore band come progressive rock are also daring to experiment with dance break beat influences? Then I saw the keyboard synth and all was revealed – yes they dare to experiment and with a singer putting a lot of enthusiastic verve in to the singing making this band quite a lively high energy act. A band that would be fair to say would be better seeing a few more times to get used to, which if you think about it, is another way of saying that they are not predictable or boring.
Review by Keith www.bedfordmetal.tk