Thirst Club Esquires Bedford. Saturday 12th February 2005.
Overview by Wendy (Wenders), David Tomblin and Keith.
Never heard of Venomous Snake before and probably never will, - they slithered away and did not show on the night, this left my hometown band MORA from Luton to kick off the evenings proceedings.
They have a straightforward basic rock sound with bursts of enthusiastic energy, seeming perhaps a bit unsteadily nervous to begin with, but soon got well in to it as if to say “What the hell lets just get on and do it”. Their Hunky lead singer put everything in to enjoying his lolloping round on stage seeming to know what he was doing and I thought could have wrecked the stage if he was just a tad more clumsier whilst bobbing round on set.
They have a youthful cute looking lead guitarist who despite playing extremely well with skill and precession and definitely looking every inch the ‘rock star’ seemed to have an unassuming back seat roll. I don’t go for arrogance or anything but perhaps a bit more attitude would come over more as good showmanship with these guys; (give it more welly).
Some liquid got spilled on the dance floor at one point but the head bouncer just continued smoking his fag, instead of getting it mopped up like at every other venue up and down the country.
They mentioned a new C.D. coming out soon, so things are looking up for Mora, they don’t seem to command great crowd interest or control yet but definitely have the ingredients to do good things.
by Wendy (Wenders) www.bedfordmetal.tk
Loved Mora’s set by the way but if your more used to their straight up sound… then you wouldn’t understand a word of DELICATE CHILDREN Bedford’s home grown and with the largest door tally score. What ever it is they are conveying, it’s done with such passion and vitality. They mean what their saying!
Didn’t think there was that great a turn out, I’m not sure if this was for ‘Geographical’ reasons = (1 band from Bedford 2 not) or ‘Meteorological’ reasons = (Fucking shit weather).
They have a weird, diverse, origional sound; experimental in places and started with a relatively new song with improvisingly fresh lyrics (probably made them up as they went along). Also on offer – Live faves ‘Neropolice Calligraphy’ and ‘Missing Presumed’, with it’s all over the place sound. They managed to get more people up front which was good. Their drummer – minus his pilots hat this time and going for a more Andy Cap look seems quite delicate with the drumming which adds a kind of menace to the sound. I can’t see how his drumming could reduce a drum kit to looking like Tupperware as I saw in a review of them once. It would be good if their lead guitarist stopped playing with his back to the audience, he has these great little finger picking bursts of atmosphere-laden riffs that should be pushed at the crowd and not hidden, and did he bust a string at one point? There seemed to be a stopgap bit towards the end, in which it was quite professional of the bassist and drummer to improvise something to avoid a silence.
I liked the attitudes of the first two bands, with D.C. saying their not to bothered if they don’t win – they just want to play the gig and Mora showing support to the other bands and admitting to being blown away by Fell silent, who although for me were the only band I don’t know too well, I thought deserved the judges decision of winning (Well Done Fell Silent!).
by Keith www.bedfordmetal.tk
FELL SILENT – They were the ones who had a lead singer with a striped badger style designer stubble look. They sounded tighter than a well-tethered bull. The vocals I thought seemed a bit low and could have been louder but I’m just being a perfectionist because they were just so damn good.
I thought their drummer was the best on the night and drummed with an almost military style precision, it really stood out as a fine bit of drumming throughout.
I could see that this band was a well oiled machine they knew what to do and did it right, a well practiced band, good at what they do and extremely tight with it. Can I just admit that I am not especially in to the Hardcore genre of music but lets be honest, if you’ve got any intelligence (and ears) you can spot a good band when you hear one!
Another thing that did it for me was the fact that the singer was just so good with the crowd talking to us between songs confident but warm also.
Like I said I’m not actually a Hardcore fan but for once agreed with the judges decision and I’m very sure every one else thought the same, that these guys did quite deservedly win this heat. – Well-done guys!! There’s a chance to hear a track of theirs on the Sound Page on this site.
by David Tomblin. www.bedfordmetal.tk