Winnebago Deal, Zipper, Unitus, The Dan Williams All-Stars.
Saturday 1st. May 2004, The Thirst Club, Bedford Esquires.

(Gig Photo's)
After [unintentionally] arriving fashionably late I only caught the last few songs by the Dan Williams All-stars who seemed pretty good. They had a pretty emo-hardcore sound and seemed pretty sorted with a coach-load of fans… literally and the stage presence was more than ‘good’ their vocals were really good as well. The only downer being that I just found them a little unoriginal. I was later to find out that there were only two bassists out of the four bands and here was one of them. Jumping off amps is the new tango.

Unitus were next up, last time I saw them it was madness- no one was standing at the front – I couldn’t understand it, so I just went to the front anyway…only to be told 5 songs into their set that one of the singer’s bollocks was hanging out… I ran faster than a paedophile in Kids World. He then went on to down a bottle of J.D. and invaded the women’s toilets. Pretty rock n roll in a fucked up sense!
This time was a little bit different though. The music was still bloody brilliant and the singer was still pretty crazy - smashing on a plastic pint glass and then trying to cut himself with it, luckily he didn’t get a scratch… madness… There must be something in the Unitus water – one of the guitarists broke 3 strings on his guitar and when given a guitar that wasn’t tuned up he just danced through the rest of the song. Their sound is a pretty dark version of QOTSA’s and the crowd were loving every second, especially this guy in a duffel coat! It was just a shame that they were asked to end their set before their last song.

The Zipper then graced the stage and were in my opinion the best band of the night, their sound is totally original. With 2 vocalists they gave their songs a special edge and made the audience gag with loads of electronic noise thrown into the mix. They faultlessly went through their set and stunned the room. Highlights for me were the singer falling over, the bassist giving me a Unitus CD [top stuff by the way] and their song ‘Disco’ when it breaks down into this mad riff towards the end.

Winnebago Deal then set up, with only one guitarist and a drummer and 3 amps… I’m guessing 2 were for his guitar and the other amp was a bass amp just to fill all the gaps that being a 2-man band can leave. Last time I saw them was supporting Fugazi in London a couple of years ago and I remember a bottle or two being thrown at the guitarist during one of their songs which has a 30 second gap or something ridiculous like that… I feel his pain – just in a toy ray gun form. heh.
Tonight was the last gig before they went off to Seattle to record a full length album with Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Nebula, Soundgarden, Zeke etc.) so I had high hopes tonight as they didn’t really leave an impression on me at the Fugazi gig. They seemed to have a hardcore fan with them squatting on the floor nodding to the beat and occasionally adding in some vocals and inappropriately showing the finger to the audience. They’ve got a pretty heavy sound which towards the end of their set got a tad boring riff, riff, riff, scream, scream, scream… yawn. Then again the audience seemed satisfied [duffel coat guy still loving the gig]. Stage presence suffered due to them being a 2-man band I suppose but it was still quite weird how 2 brothers could create such noise.
A pretty good night but I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by the headliners.

Review by Craig sharp www.bedfordmetal.tk