I'm tired of being what you want me to be, feeling so faithless, lost under the surface

Friday 6 November - there's an old saying (I say it and I'm old) that sometimes you have to listen to rubbish music otherwise you don't appreciate the good stuff. Tonight, at Fibbers, I gained a good deal of appreciation for the good stuff. However, not included in that sweeping statement was the first of tonight's bands, Astrae. We've seen them before, but I'm sure they've lost a lady violinist somewhere along the way. A York-based band, they consist of James A Hutchinson (Guitar / Vocals), Jack Beavers (Guitar / Synth / Vocals), Ali Thyne (Drums / Percussion), Rio (Keyboard / Synth), and T-Bone Malogus (Bass and pineapple knot hair do). I like their music. It's alt-rock with a healthy dash of keyboards, and somewhere in the mix was the superb Outlander, and the tracks Something for Now, and L'Ost. Each song is longer than the bog-standard three-minute as the band concentrate on lengthier, crafted tunes that convince, me at least, that real thought goes into each composition.

It's downhill from there I'm afraid. Second support came from Thatcher's Bush.Again, we've seen these before and, on the strength of tonight's performance, I've no reason to change my opinion that these are basically a formulaic pub-rock band veering on the side of ska-punk. OK, I will admit that they might make a reasonable Clash covers band.

There was slight improvement (it would have been difficult to get worse) with headliners Sons Of Albion, a London-based outfit consisting of Logan Plant (vocals and famous dad), Nuno Miguel (guitars), Gones (bass) and Francisco de Sousa (drums). They are likened to Soundgarden, Audioslave and Stone Temple Pilots but, frankly, their dark and intense music doesn't really go anywhere. It just sits in a corner making a noise while Plant hops about on stage weaving his hands around like a Bollywood princess. Of course, I may have been a bit cheesed off by this time, and therefore a bit negative. Certainly, if I had to chuck my money at any band it would have been Astrae.

We were hoping for a lift to the end of the evening by finishing off in The Roman Bath. Unfortunately there was a different band playing than had been previously advertised, and whoever it was played some dismal covers with an inappropriate ska edge. All a bit rubbish really.