Saturday 17th November 2001, Bedford Esquires.
Due to their tour being cancelled, Throat did not arrive to play tonight without any prior warning. However, Sick On The Bus and The Film made this gig well worth going to, both bands delivering incendiary live performances.
As time goes on, The Film are gradually emerging as the new hope of the Bedford metal scene - they have that all important "x-factor" that gains them new fans every time they play, and an almost guaranteed moshpit. Blending influences from many diferent styles of metal, hardcore and alternative rock they end up with a very volatile mix. They are not like the average nu-metal bands with their cliched riffs and song structures but are developing a great style of their own. Their frontman Carl was great onstage as usual, doing his trademark stagedive during the last song of the set. By then, they had won over the initially lukewarm crowd and had a sizeable moshpit for an opening band. However, their one big problem at the moment are the many rough edges to their playing and performance. At different gigs Carl's singing is of varying quality - sometimes he does and almost perfect delivery, while at this gig he was often out of tune. He does make up for it with his attitude and onstage persona. The Film are the ones to watch in our scene, as well as the increasingly popular Alterica.
And now onto the Sickies... Well, what the fuck do you expect me to say that i haven't said before? I have never been to a shit gig by this band - they are always brilliant, with the perfect material for playing live and getting the crowd going. The set included some previews from their upcoming album "Go To Hell", which were standard SOTB high-quality thrash punk fare, as well as all the established classics. A lot of their regular fans did not turn up, probably waiting for their appearance in London at the Holidays In The Smoke punk festival at the weekend, which meant that the usual violent pit was absent. However, everyone was still visibly enjoying the gig, with several metallers getting overexcited when Biff strapped on a flying V instead of his usual SG. A great gig, but who would expect less form Sick On The Bus? Their new album should be a blinder.
Peter Burov