Saturday 23rd Dec 2002, Bedford Esquires.
To be honest, I was outside trying to sell a ticket I had spare during the first band so I missed them except from the last few songs.
They seemed to be a sort of fast/heavy, punky, grunge; more than the slow steady pacing grunge you tend to hear more in the local scene, they had lots of energy and delivered it through fast powerful riff, imagine Nirvana writing all their songs like new wave polly, the crowd responded quite well, it was the sort of music you could bang your head to or jump around to, the guitars were in time and played well with the bass, the drums were standard but it fitted in well with a few good fills, the vocals as usual were hard to hear (as always at Esquires) but I could'nt pick out any fault!
The second band started with a fast punky grunge song, much like one the previous band would write, this pretty much started a good atmosphere which carried out through their next few songs, but then the crowd seemed to slow down as the set all seemed to sound exactly the same, all their songs were basically muggy riffs played with stoppy parts, the bass followed the guitar in an uninteresting fashion, the vocals were quite good but it helps if the backing vocalist sings in to the mic, so you can hear him, not in to the general direction of the mic. At first I thought I would like this band but the material used was all the same to me, a few members of the crowd were impressed, and little energy was delivered. The band however did have a lot of professionalism, they covered mishaps such as guitar faults e.t.c well with out stopping - which impressed me. The attitude towards the crowd was much the same, it lacked in communication and the only time they talked to the crowd was to ask the crowd to buy merchandice! At the end, the bassist threw his guitar down with "much" power in a traditional grunge fashion, resulting in him breaking the guitar stand of the front man from Teen Spirit, - not going down well with the roadie!
Teen Spirit came out as they did the last two times, lights down, walking out smoking, looking messy and started with Dive, which automatically got the crowd moving, the energy had built up again after the bring down from the previous band. They played much the same set as before including 'Lithium, Teen Spirit, Aneurysm', etc along with Know Your Right, - the latest release, the crowd loved every song. I distinctly remember the crowd on Know Your Right, at the end when Kurt sings "heyyyy heyyyyyyheyyyheyyyyy heyyyyyheyyyyheyyy heyyyhheyyyheyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" the crowd took over from the Cobain dressed front man, nearly every person there was singing along, it was overwhelming, I enjoyed it immediatley! The atmosphere was at an all time high when the crowd started shouting for them to play Love Bugs, a fan favourite in the Bedford area, the band did as told, which was great of them and the crowd just got moving again instantly, I don't know how everyone had so much energy. The band ended with Teen Spirit, then the editable chants of "we want more" came ?(or "fucking whore" as one or two people chanted) the band came back on and started the encore in probably the best way imaginable, with Breed, the crowd went nuts and they played one or two classics before the night ended.
Teen Spirit play much the same set every year but it never fails to get the crowd stunned and deliveres so much energy, the vocals seemed to be a bit week in places, in my opinion due to the moniters not working at the front of the stage. I went to the back during the set and the sound was amazing, they sound c.d. quality, believe me, next time they are in town - see them! I think Esquires should have spent the 'refirb' money on new speakers because the sound quality is really bad at the moment and bands complaining of moniter faliure, although the new carpet does look snazzy, and as the T.S. front man said "Dont forget to take your shoes off when you come in".
Review by Goody.