Thirst Club Esquires Bedford. Saturday 23rd April 2005.
Reviewed by tree - from GAIN.
Henry And The Bleeders boomed onto the stage with some fast punky rock 'n' roll tracks. The front man (I’m guessing Henry) with an awesome mohawk, was full with energy and the crowd began to start moving. With some cool bluesy walking base, it gave a nice unique tone. Although I did think many of their songs sounded similar to one another they were of high quality and originality. The overall look of the band was a classic punk. I especially liked how the front man had 'Henry and the bleeders' imprinted on his back. Very cool. They ended their set and there was a very creditable cheer. Their stage experience was very obvious as they seemed well rehearsed with a no fault show.
The next band up were Cut In Quarters were a little less to my tastes, however, where pretty good. Adopting more of a punky emo sound. They were I think quite nervous, and I didn’t really like how they started as their backs were to the audience, I think if they had the keyboard like Summerfall did (at the side near the front) their appearance would have been more inviting. The overall sound I liked as it was moshable but also something you could sit in a bar drinking away your problems to. Overall a good show.
The last band were the well known Blackout starting their set with some ball busting solos and face melting rhythms they really got the crowd going. Although the crowd was rather small they defiantly did not lack any energy. With one guy (I think he's called James) successfully crowd surfing to the front only to fall at Adam's (blackouts guitarist's) feet. Chris (vocals) had a great link with the crowd with them hanging on his every word. Martin(bassist) shook peoples hand after every song, which I thought, was cool. And Geoff the drummer was pulling of amazing double bass fills etc without hardly moving his upper body. Their following deffinatly loves them and they followed their tradition of playing a system of a down cover, during which, everyone went nuts over. I thought it was good how Chris carried on talking while tuning and there was not a quite moment throughout the set. Well done guys.
When the announcements came Keith (Bedford’s finest reviewer) came onto the stage and revealed the bands to be going to the final were blackout and Henry and the bleeders. I like this style of announcement more as it was far more positive. A very good night!
tree - from GAIN