Friday 16 January - "Man doth not live by covers only" (Roj 8:3) and so we turned up at Fibbers for an evening of original tunes from two bands utterly unknown to us, and one that we've heard before. The beer in Fibs is disgusting these days. Tetley's Cold, I ask you, Tetley's is bad enough served luke-warm but cold bitter is a travesty that shouldn't be endured.
Musically, we kicked off with Astrae (on MyFace and FaceFriend), a York-based alt-rock band consisting of James A Hutchinson (Guitar / Vocals), Jack Beavers (Guitar / Synth / Vocals), Ali Thyne (Drums / Percussion), Rio (Keyboard / Synth), T-Bone Malogus (Bass), and Jo Wherry (Violin). To be honest, it wasn't a good start. Jack had his right arm in a cast and was unable to play his guitar so he plonked away on a mini keyboard with his left hand. James' guitar wasn't quite tuned to the same key as Jo's violin which made for a bit of dischord, and then about half-way through the first song, James' guitar went completely silent. By song two the sound was cutting in and out intermittantly and his guitar strap came adrift. OK, it was a bit of a disaster and James was seething while the rest of the band avoided looking at him and hoped the ground would swallow them soon. Normalcy was restored for their fifth and final track which we rather enjoyed. In fact, if you removed the technological gremlins, I liked the way all their songs were crafted and particularly the slightly jazz feel to songs three and four. I would definitely like to see this band on a good night so I'll be watching out for them again.
The next band were The Buccaneers, a York-based garage blues outfit comprising; Andre (guitar), Leo (guitar), and Jonny (drums). Amongst the tracks they played were Wanted Man, Maggie, Busy Waters, She's Coming For Your Bones, and Whiskey in the Jar, but their tight performance couldn't make up for the lack of musical variety between each tune. A tad disappointing really.
Finally, the band that we had seen before, 98Pages, who are: Martyn Fillingham (Vocals/Guitar), Jase Brooks (Bass), and Andy Black (Drums). Another power blues trio but this time with much more variety to their tunes, and Jase strutting around like Meatloaf-lite commanding as much stage as lead man Martyn. Think of Led Zepplin playing punk or The Who on speed. There's a freshness and rawness to their sound that suddenly makes you appreciate live music. I didn't catch the titles of many of their tunes but amongst them were: Goodbye Jo Jo, Same Old Pain, and Winter Days. At one point Martyn declared "here's one off our next album". I think he meant their debut album which is due to be launched on 13 March 2008 at The Duchess, although it's not on the What's On list yet. Anyway, recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment