Bedford Alternative Music Presents: MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU Hazard, Subject To Change, Reversal, Near Moments.

Bedford Esquires Holy Molys Lev 1 Friday 4th May 2012.

Photos (c)Bedford Alternative Music 2011.

Originally going to be called Regional Bands Night, but happening on 4th May we couldnt resist giving this gig a Star Wars tag. Joe from Hazard had a big hand in the line up with late addition from NEAR MOMENTS who I can quite see why they have been diligently asking for gig opportunities, the answer being that they know how good they are and can demonstrate that fact also!
Near Moments are quite simply a touch of class, very talented, entertaining, wide appealing, whats more they have a good following and stick around to watch the other bands, which is always good to see.
Their (gorgeous) female fronted singer has a strong powerful voice with just the perfect sassy rock tones required and demonstrates her abilities further by including some violin work in to the mix. This raises the bands profile in making them more memorable and less like clones of other bands adding a kind of trademark to their style. I think the violin addition works extremely well and would suit well if included not all but most of the time, so I am kind of hoping it wont be dropped in newer songs to come.
With good guitar work and tunes throughout and an early mosh pit in to the proceedings, its clear that they are a great act to see live!

Another class act to follow and winners of a recent Luton competition REVERSAL are a band that anyone no matter what their preferred musical style is you would still know that they are riding high at being extremely good at what they are doing. I suspect they learnt to play their instruments, becoming consummate musicians before deciding to join a band as they all seem well accomplished at what they do. I have seen similar bands but not quite as good, the differences being the sheer good humouredness to their songs and although could perhaps get away with a lesser singer, instead have a particularly good one in being able to project and power out a strong vocal content, hold notes and sing with vitality and passion making me appreciate the bands style even more. They always seem to have new material, some of which appears on their new C.D. Reviewed Here on sale at the gig, they can also raise crowd interest and make me think they will (thankfully) be around for a long time to come.

With an innocent smile the foxy lady singing for SUBJECT TO CHANGE presents her self well and gives us some good singing with vocal techniques to allow a great performance. Not to pushy or in your face like some , instead fitting in just right, making me think we have captured and presented a singer just before they got famous as all the talent is defiantly there.
Heavy grimaces from their guitarist while adding to the vocal content also. Their style is quite ambient at times with both slower paced and more rockier numbers when their guitarist takes on the harder guitar bursts putting in added swirls of movement before calls for his top to come off to continue towards the end. A less enthused bassist discreets herself in the background but delivers some Stirling bass work asserting the tunes with all band members creating Indie rock at its best.

The imperial theme is played and even Darth Vader and his storm troopers would scatter at the oncoming of the next band. You could HAZARD a guess as to the musical style and if you like traditional old school punk, then your in for a bit of a treat. Solid drumming, catchy guitar licks and well rounded punk vocals from their brush topped singer/guitarist (I resisted the temptation to say My Little Pony) (apart from just then). With newly sprayed HAZARD on their drum kit taking a pounding while a healthy mosh pit took place. A nod to their old school origins is never out of place and a few covers from the punk hey day past were on offer along with their own well remembered classics. I think the bands next step forward is to save their anticipated crowd anthems as a last songs closer, preceded by some fresh new material. Hazard showed they can put on a fantastic headline show with good comments of approval interestingly from our Henry And The Bleeders front man in attendance. (HATB are a well respected Bedford punk band who beat Enter Shikari in a Bedford Band Battle!). Hazard obviously know what sort of sounds they want and certainly do it entertainingly well!
Some surprises were thrown in when the return of guitarist Tom from Subject To Change guest sung on some of the end tracks. Lets award him Man Of The Match award for his stage contributions (and off stage crowd surfing). Also guesting for a growled slot was Adam from pull outs Creep Fool Casablanca who for some reason always complain I spell incorrectly (OK its Keep Cool Casanova ha ha). With the audience reception I bet he wished he could have done a full set with his band.

Hazard showed along with the other bands and good turnout that this rare full band experience in Holy Molys (which some didn’t even know existed) was not so much of being just a gig but a full party in swing.