BEDFORD METAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS 07

 

The Bedford Civic Theatre, Horn lane St. Pauls Bedford. Friday 21st September 2007.

Polite Underground, Temples Burning, Accidental Jenious, Streetsleeper, The Inspiration, Minimal Damage.

Heat 3. Winners - Streetsleeper and Minimal Damage. Best New Band Winners - Polite Underground.

Heat 3

Taking their influences from Libertines, Babyshambles, Rakes, Hooks and The View, POLITE UNDERGROUND having only formed a year ago took to the stage, nervous at first, not having done many gigs other than village and school halls. One of the youngest age range Bedford Metal has given a gig opportunity to. Their bass player looked the part with his neck bandana giving the stage a cowboy and indie band flavour! There was a lot of that up/down strumming widely used in this genera of music which had quite a basic beat and vocals which were a mix between half really competent and half out of tune, a definite room for improvement, but no denying they had a good command of their crowd. They cut the set short for some reason but after winning their new band heat will have a chance to further their experience.

TEMPLES BURNING a Metallica, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Machine Head influenced metal band from Milton Keynes who were my favourite band of the night. They opened with some great atmospheric synth keyboards. They were just pure class, professional sounding vocals, not in any way grating; surely these are better than some of the signed bands around? Their drums were re-enforced, probably to withstand the heavy pounding they were getting. They also received a pretty good mosh pit at the front, which I'm sure pleased the band no-end.

From Luton/Dunstable and not the best crowd reaction ACCIDENTAL JENIOUS had some tuneful guitars and a singer that put his all in to it. I wondered if the previous band had worn the crowd out although I'm sure they wouldn't have been put off by the both melodic and hard core sound. They had some good tunes, if sounding a little off kilter in places. I thought they had a good old school metal sound, especially from their covers which included Thin Lizzy and Velvet Revolver, performed with the bands individual style. - Standard but not bad.

STREETSLEEPER are certainly no bunch of homeless ho-bo's as their band name implies - they are instead, a back to basics 3-piece heavy rock band from Hearts. They have been gigging in London and the South east and have recently been chosen to provide soundtrack songs for the forthcoming U.K. horror film 'Hotel Caledonia' What a great sound from only 3 people! Tight and professional, perhaps nothing extraordinary out of the hat, they just get on straight with it. With influences from Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Prodigy and Queens Of The Stone age, they were well capable of creating a party atmosphere which included a rugby scrum type line-up from the audience up front, breaking in to a myriad of movement to the great riffs and hooks being played.

They had the crowd holding people in the air for the next band, who fall in to an established but still newly re-invented reggae fused indie band - THE INSPIRATION with very logically followed drum beats from the bewildering variety of hat wearing drummer throughout their set.
I kind of thought it would be a forgone conclusion that this band would win for some reason but it was not to be, even though two of their members have each come from two other bands that will be returning after winning their previous heats. The winning formula didn't rub off here though, not even their stripy top, muffler and hat clad guitarist looking somewhat startlingly like a comic strip burglar with out the bag marked swag, could steal them winning points. Where has their new bass player escaped from? - one of the coolest dudes on the young band circuit who usually fronts 'The Escape' and putting in some quality bass. The singer /guitarist is the mainstay of the band with a really good singing voice to add to their Libertine like sound.

Maximum Volume was given to MINIMAL DAMAGE who had everyone involved from the start, if a band member waved an arm - the crowd did. Ska punk touching on dub and two-tone, they were the band that got the most movement with its timeless sound that probably even a 40's war-time audience would enjoy. They now have 2 sax players making a welcome addition to the band. On their first few gigs I have to confess that I thought they had someone doing the singing as opposed to a singer doing the singing which I thought was a weak point of the band; pleasing to see now then, that the vocals have much improved now he has got in to his stride after a few gigs. Not just a band but a party crowd inducing machine as well it would seem!

Well done to the winners of each section who go through to the next round.



Polite Underground

Temples Burning

Accidental Jenious

Streetsleeper

The Inspiration

Minimal Damage
For more photos of this gig see 'Gig photos' button at top.

Keith www.bedfordmetal.co.uk