Bedford Alternative Music Presents: The Thursday Showcase.
The Noise Theory, Black Polaris, Thousand Years Of Chaos, As Daylight Dies.

Bedford Esquires Lev 1 Thursday 16th March 2012.

Review by Martin Stapleton, Photos (c)Bedford Alternative Music 2011.

As is regular at this time of the year, Bedford Alternative Music are in Esquires for its annual showcase nights in Dannys Bar. This evening?s fare is the first of four and will culminate in the main stage Maundy Thursday Extravaganza. (The Monster Showcase)

Opening are AS DAYLIGHT DIES, this south Bedfordshire band are the most well known faces to the regular Esquires gig goers, having performed here many times during the past year. They always impress me with both their presence and quality of material. Sadly they did suffer a technical problem at the beginning of their set, when we failed to hear Leos vocals on the first song. Once this was overcome, A.D.D. just flowed fully with their metal sounds. Air tight musically for such young ages, they have as many smart ideas than a philosophers convention! With gut punching riffola, a real warmth infuses their performance. Constantly writing new material, they do however perform their only official release, Loosing Grip, but admit to being A bit bored of it now!.

This exciting beginning is definitely not maintained by the next band for our perusal. At the start, the vocalist rather indignantly explains that there is No A in THOUSAND YEARS OD CHAOS band name! There is, I notice also no human drummer! Thats the bands most serious problem for their gig tonight. A drum recorded package is simultaneously streamed through via a laptop, to accompany the vocalist and two guitarists. Anyone for Metal Karaoke! in fact, in effect its not so much Thousand Years Of Chaos rather thirty minutes of Chaos! Its hard to be objective and realistic with this band, given their set up, The Joker, a song that has not been played live before, is enthusiastically performed. An observation is made of the vocalist, who throughout, operates with a very expressive left arm, which to say the least is slightly off putting. It almost acts as a pitch control. Arm up (higher), arm down (lower). He roars with sinister laughter, at its start. It will certainly be interesting to see this band return with a full complete line up next time around.

With Half Term week upon us, Dannys bar is almost like a bouncy castle, as the youngsters gather up tightly to be almost nose to nose with our next visitors, BLACK POLARIS. Its been a while since we last saw them at Esquires. It?s worth the wait, as like all your late eighties faves used to do, they quite brilliantly blend in some urgent, catchy, fast, humorous, informative melodic deathmetalcore!
Armour plated, its both powerful and dynamic in all the right ways. Combined, it makes for a downright vicious and exhilarating assault. Momentum is maintained throughout. Its scruffy old skool leanings are perfect.
Black Polaris are tooled up with a vocalist who rigidly keeps to his principles. He barks and does not thankfully, dare I say, scream, which unfortunately is so prevalent now with a lot of the pretty boy metal bands. As well as breathless, it leaves you wanting to gargle some olive oil! Oh yes, I did mention humour, well that emanates from their final song, which is explained thus If you dont like Lady Gaga, you will hate this! If you do like Lady Gaga you will hate this! A manically wild cover of Love Game ensues. Black Polaris, wow! Come back soon.

THE NOISE THEORY have a lot to follow and despite enthusiastic crowd activity, fall short since their last Esquires performance, they have certainly brushed up their act to give it more style and flow. Indeed, except for an absurdly tasteless rape joke, the set is performed well. Their outrageous Toxic cover seems to be the fans favourite, as a section of chairs go flying over. Hordes of bodies jump and sway around.
Of their own material, I especially liked The Trip. To sum up, The Noise Theory are the perfect epitome for a true showcase bands night. Basically a chance to impress people who are not aware of their work.