Bedford Alternative Music Present: New Blood Showcase: Broken Conscience, The Lovely Blast, Efferus, Flicker, Crimson Dream.
Bedford Esquires Lev 1 Dannys Bar Thursday 6th September 2012.
A Bedford Alternative Music showcase usually features unknown up and coming bands from Beds, Bucks, Herts and Cambs. However, tonight two are from Sussex, the lovely coastal resort of Brighton to be precise, but before those we have Broken Conscience, who suffer from having a 'muted' vocalist. To put it bluntly, we could not hear him. Not the bands' fault, but a technical one. A shame because the four piece were oh so visual, as well as having a drummer who wasn't afraid to give it a real whack. With good arrangements and fine timing, their old skool metal leanings were interesting to peruse. Without many pauses they attacked each song with so much vigour.
The first of our long distance visitors are The Lovely Blast . They are a trio who feature a large male vocalist/guitarist who sports an awesome 'Franz Josef' moustache and two ladies on bass and drums.
Collectively they produce slight echoes of 50's rockabilly, stirrings of 60's surf and lashings of old skool 70's punk, all wrapped up in a 21st century package. Their lyrics are direct and to the point. Witty banter is both dry and humorous. The frontman is slightly older than the rest of the musicians appearing here tonight, but he has travelled a lot of miles to get here so what the hell! Lets have some fun. "Go get em in" is a great start and about a subject very close to this reviewer's heart, as a chorus of "Lets have a beer" rings out. Ah this band will do for me, that’s for sure. They play "Nuns". We are told "it's about nuns" (not the wet ones). A nasty bass, nice deep and organic accompanies most of the set, especially in the intro to "40 thieves". It's sinister and eerie arrangement makes for compulsive listening. "Dead" is a lyrically dark and amusing song about the death of a loved one; "I put the kettle on without you", "I go to the pub without you", "You're really dead"! "Sid and Nancy" is a fast one, while on "Feelings", we are told that it is the closest that The Lovely Blast get to "death metal" before adding quickly "not very close"! "Sexy rat" features a very distinctive riff, it is almost horror punk and backing vocals from the bassist bring good variation. I feel that "Please don't go" is the poppiest of all their songs, complete with its cheesy and irresistibly catchy singalong title. It has been an extremely good introduction to such an entertaining punk band and they made my evening worthwhile. Thanks very much people and safe journey home.
Also from the south coast are Flicker . I immediately warm to their flamboyant frontman who opens by saying "We're a little bit different from everyone else here tonight, but hey we all like music". My usual opinion of pop punk is that it is peddling an inoffensive sanitised brand of punk that seems to be more about style than content. That verdict was true and accurate about Flicker until they introduced "Buying demise". Their spokesman wins Bedford over as a furious tirade against the evil EDL is applauded, never angling for any sort of sensationalism, just unbridled communication. Written by their drummer, it's a powerful song. This is followed by "Rock place", a true story of a student fatally shot by police at a college in Brighton. "Hang your heads in shame" is sung with bundles of conviction. These two Brighton bands really put a hefty grin on my phizog and a welcome shiver in these old bones of mine.
Efferus mix energy with potency. This Stevenage quartet don't see why they should do anything but musically punch you in the solar plexus. These nu-metallers borrow heavily from the likes of say Korn. Their large travelling support care not a jot and help to create a bubbling atmosphere. It is very hot and sweaty in Danny's Bar this evening. Efferus are professional in their stage presence and even have a large billboard advertising them. They display powerful riffage and room shaking drum work with a throaty bruiser to complete the team. Impressing with "Six feet", it does seem to be "Katfish" that the tight knit Efferus family really appreciate. A quick scan around the room sees so many heads nodding.
Concluding the musical fayre are local lads Crimson Dream . They also throw a large nod to rock's original roots. They easily win the longest hair competition! Sharing Flicker's drummer, I observe that this man will be very tired at the show's end. After observing three of their songs, I muse gently to myself that the midnight (well it's past eleven) metal musos are notoriously troubled souls. As such, I head off home for a nice refreshing cup of tea and a chocolate Hob-Nob! – Martin Stapleton.
Additional: I think this was one of the best gigs I have seen of this band, probably due to a mixture of bad sound systems at other venues and having that much more practice and experience. They are a band that excel in individually having noticeably high ranking musicians along with skillsets and talent wise but maybe lacking on occasions to get it all together as a consistently tight band playing together in unison, shouldn’t take much tweaking on that front though as it was good to see they were on top form for this gig. They seem very much styled towards the stadium side of live metal performance, putting on a big style of show and making themselves excel in being entertaining and crowd attention holding.
I think if I set up a drum kit alongside theirs and played drums along with them, my drumming skill level would look like an amateurish 4 year olds compared to theirs. He drums with a hypnotising fluidity, perfectly timed like a well oiled machine (cool skeletal top as well – Iv got one like that). I think it would be fair and fitting to award him Man Of The Match for consistently brilliant drumming on no less than two of the bands playing on the bill – one following the other as well.
Crimson Dream are never more better than when firmly gripping you with a well toned instrumental burst of galloping guitars and percussion and having good and melodic material only goes further in showcasing their playing abilities to deliver some great songs some of which are nothing short of anthemic “Fight Your Demons, One Last Time” being a fave live chant. – (Additional by keith)
Broken Conscience Vid
The Lovely Blast Vid
Review by Martin Stapleton, with Additional by keith www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk