Bedford Alternative Music Presents: The MONSTER Showcase (best of).
Reversal, Sever The Strings, Wearewolf, Escaping Juliet, To Light An Abyss.

Bedford Esquires Lev 2 Thursday 21st April 2011. Review by Martin Stapleton.

Photos (c)Bedford Alternative Music 2011.

Held over four successive March Thursday evenings in Dannys Bar, Bedford Alternative Music has been busy showcasing some twenty bands of differing musical genres. Most are young and inexperienced but they are oh so keen! Tonight the main stage is host to five of them on this annual Maundy Thursday Monster Best Of.

The room is buzzing. Its holiday time, the weather is fine and the crowd have come to party. Wow! What a superb start we get as one of the most impressive young bands I have seen in a long time hit the stage. All in their mid-teens Lutons Reversal have such a wide and varied range of styles. Their taste and grip of musical mechanics at such an age is to be admired and applauded. They also have an E.P. to sell. Its called: The Society Of Portly Gentlemen. Starting with Rusty City Martyr, for an old fogey like myself its a song that harks back to The Stranglers. Harry Saban on keys giving it the trademark Jet Black signature. While the raw punk guitar edge is provided by Simon Tyrie and Stephen Plummer. Confident and assured, they debut Sultans Charm even though they only finished it the day before. Harry adds wistfully Hope it doesnt sound like it! With a subtle Latinesque beat, it has enough danceability to engage some crowd movement. The contrast in Reversals musical portfolio could not be summed up better than when the heavy and almost classic rock leanings of all in my head are followed by the song of the night called Bhindie. As the title suggests its a crossover sound of Bhangra and Indie Rock. Brilliant originality. With this full on assault the lads calm things down a tad with Rio Di Janeiro. Although an E.P. acoustic track, Reversal electrify it for us tonight. To end, and with a quick switchover, Simon takes centre stage for Lonely Man of Nowhere. An excellent all round performance and maturity beyond their years.

Standards are maintained by the ever dependable Sever The Strings .This East Beds. trio consist of Simon Wilson (base vocals), Peter Hunt (guitar) and Dan Benson (drums). In the context of the evening they are perhaps the elder statesmen, unleashing an enormous barrage of power. Their stage craft and presence is extremely good, containing a physical drummer who, thankfully, whacks and not waxes the skins. This sticksman is the spine to complement the guitarists heart and soul. Peter and Simon both spar, go their own way before taking centre stage under the bright front lights a hail of rock bullets greet Seal Their Fate. While my head was gently nodding to The Beast, this song almost makes it explode, such is the fury and intensity of it. Dynamic structures abound. Sacrifice contains a most addictive riff. The fearsome nature of the song is matched by a supreme and beautiful brutality. The brief mellow interlude offers only a momentary respite to an even more dark and deathly passage.

The following two bands I have witnessed previously on the showcase evenings. Firstly Wearewolf ,a mammoth six piece from Milton Keynes. Again confidence is key. This is a band who stick rigidly to the formula of sing a bit, shout a bit! A vocalist yells out vainly, Lets see you dance, Bedford! Sadly, only a few take up the offer. A fair sized crowd are watching but there seems to be little movement, except for a few girls who dance a bit. Perhaps their destination was to See The Sexy Boy selling the bands T-shirts. Everyone, however, does participate for the spectacular Wearewolf Wall of Death. (end mosh)

In a similar vein are Lutons Escaping Juliet .This five-piece have only one screamer. A much more accessible band who are musically tighter. They employ three guitarists who seem to make their instruments purr with delight. Angels and Devils is a fans favourite, in fact the front man is encouraged to shout out: If you know the words, sing it! Their travelling hordes need no encouragement as they vocally let rip.

This is the third time I have seen To Light An Abyss and this young band continue to improve. They employ some proper metal guitar widdling and their vocalist has immense confidence. Considering its getting rather late, they hold everybodys attention. This band rock! Firstly they encourage everybody to put an arm around someones shoulder and mosh. While on Veil of Inception a circle pit is unleashed. Putting tremendous energy into their set, they are at the close drained and admit, We are slaughtered! With just enough fuel in the tank to tackle an encore. They deliver Unity. Taking some well-earned applause, the front mans closing quote is classic saying, You have all just lost the game!