Saturday 29th September 2001, Bedford Esquires.
It's rare to find a professional and well rehearsed band in Bedford, especially one as new as ska-punkers Chico And The Chocolate Factory who opened the night. They immediately won over their audience with their great image and stage presence, coupled with a great set of skatepunk classics. Their frontman Chico was all over the stage, and he still managed to sing more or less in tune for the whole night, looking suspiciously like a banker in his suit. My only gripe with this band is the almost total lack of original material - they have the stageshow, why don't they actually come up with some of their own music to match it?
Alterica are quickly becoming one of the rising stars of the Bedford scene, with a moshpit breaking out almost as soon as they started playing. However, they were slightly lacklustre compared to their performance on the first Bedford metal night. Ali was as usual the consummate frontman, shouting at the audience to move and acting like he was playing an arena, instead of a small club in shitty Bedford. The rest of the band weren't as good on stage though - although it could be because of this being their first gig with a new lineup (Ali from Dead Pheasant is their new lead guitarist). The sound was a bit muddy as well, with the guitars sounding messy in the mix.
And now, onto the headliners... It was obvious that Karmic Jera were very professional from the start, playing a very tight set of modern Static-X and White Zombie inspired industrial metal. They seamlessly integrated samples into their sound, and were actually far heavier live then on record, with the vocalist adopting a harsher vocal style. However, as their set wore on, I began to find it a bit dull, as their songs all seemed to be based on the same principles, and almost never broke out from mid-tempo metal riffing. They may be a very professional looking and sounding band, but they are far too derivative and samey to get truly popular, which is unfortunately the case with most modern UK metal acts.
Pete Burov