Monday, 12 May 2008

She's a model and she's looking good


Friday 9 May – and it’s a tale of two halves. We started the evening at The Roman Bath to watch Rubix Cube, a band that regularly plays at the Bath but we have never managed to catch them, so didn’t know what to expect. In fact they are a three-piece show band specialising in the synth-pop/new romantic hits of the ‘80s. Now I’m sorry but I consider the ‘80s as a bit of a musical desert, especially the synth-pop stuff. I quite liked Japan (not sure that you could call them ‘pop’), and small doses of Duran Duran and OMD, so I wasn’t hopefully about this gig. We managed to last through Are Friends Electric? (Gary Numan), Killer (Adamsky), The Model (Kraftwerk), West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys), and What Is Love? (Howard Jones), before we finally cracked and fled to The Terrace. I’m sure the band (Craig Hill - Frontman and Keyboard Ax, John Diver - Lead Synths, Backing Vox, Drum Programing, and Adam Hembrough - Bass Synths, Acoustic Sounds, Backing Vox, Lighting) were very entertaining and they definitely had an impressive array of hardware: Minimoog Voyager (both Anniversary and Performer Editions), Roland Juno 60, Korg Polysix, an OSCar, Yamaha MO6, Yamaha CS1X, Korg Prophecy, and Yamaha QY700 drum machine, but the music really wasn’t my cup of Yorkshire tea. On the other hand....

...at The Terrace, the strains of Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) could be heard half way down The Pavement, what a nice welcoming sound! Inside a rather small crowd (with a pleasing current of young ladies popping in and out) were being entertained by the exceptionally talented Blueflies. We’ve seen The Blueflies on many occasions (search this blog for more details), and apart from their strange inability to end songs properly (they remind me of a rock band I saw many moons ago called The Jed Thomas Band, they spent more time finishing songs then any band I know), the Blueflies are incredibly talented and play true rock classics, Hendrix/Cream/Free/Lep Zepplin et al. Fantastic.

Looking back on the evening I still feel bad about not watching more of Rubix Cube, but it really is a genre of music that leaves me cold, so to salve my conscience here are their next dates at the Bath:

  • Sat 21 June - Roman Baths, York
  • Sat 23 August - Roman Baths, York
  • Fri 26 September - Roman Baths, York

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