This southern cross is full of holes/Frozen and over

Monday 22 June - yes I know it's a school night, but we're out to watch Nine Black Alps, the post-grunge/indie quartet from Manchester. But first of all we get to sample the delights of The Federals and Airship.

The Federals are a York band that we've seen before and I'm sure there were more of them on that occasion, but tonight just the two; Jim Feakes (guitar, vocals),and Jack Holdstock (drums). They sound like The White Stripes playing garage, or The Stooges. Its frantic stuff with barely a pause for breath and the volume is high tonight; 'A' resorted to ear defenders very early on. A lively start to the evening, although a bit samey sounding.

Next up were Airship and I was expecting (dreading?) more of the same. I was wrong. Airship hail from Manchester and the line up is: Elliott Williams (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Marcus Wheeldon (guitar, vocals), Steven Griffiths (drums), and Tom Dyball (bass). The songs were much more structured and rich, shimmering sometimes like Sigur Ros, or plunging into a dark corner of a cave inhabited by The Cure. The keyboard playing sometimes wandered off into another dimension and had us turning to each other and muttering "Hawkwind". I managed to catch the titles of a few tracks; Kids, This is Hell, and the gloriously guitar-laden Call It Science. Excellent band, well worth listening out for.

And so to the head-liners, Mancester-based NBA consists of Sam Forrest (vocals, guitar, he comes from York don't yer know), David Jones (guitar), Martin Cohen (bass), and James Galley (drums). Now I've not heard much from this band since their 2005 debut album Everything Is which was what prompted me to see them first time around. Since then they've released Love/Hate in 2007 which didn't do so well. They are currently touring their latest offering, Locked out from the Inside, which is due for release in autumn this year.

Malevolent guitars, amps set to eleven, drumming as if to save your life, Martin (bass) getting really intimate with the nearest wall. They made enough noise to wake the dead. Tracks from the new album littered the set which basically spanned the best bits of their first two albums. Frontman Sam Forrest has the voice of Kurt Cobain but injected with high octane energy that fairly spits out from the stage. Title track Locked out from the Inside. was an ear-battering thrill, Heavier Than Water and Burn Faster were delivered with gut-wrenching intensity, get Your Guns, Shot-Down, and Not Everyone were ten times better than listening in your front room. Of the new stuff, Vampire In The Sun was a filthy grunge stomp, Every Photo made my trousers shake, and Cold Star was a fuzzed out, freaked out trip. Awesome stuff but we felt slightly cheated by the lack of an encore. Highly recommended.

I’m waiting for an angel now/to lift me up above the clouds

Friday sees a return to Fibbers to watch the much lauded indie band, Jyrojets. First on the bill is local band Lips Akimbo (that’s a local band, for local people). A bit strange in the way the band members don’t like to start playing all at the same time, or even to all finish at the same time, but the middle bits are OK in a toe-tapping sorta way. The second band on are The Federals, another York band and one that I think I’ve seen before. The bass player is very energetic and the sound is a bit like the love child of The Velvet Underground and The White Stripes.

Finally, on come the Jyrojets. You can tell that they are a proper band; they have a proper website, not just an entry on MyFace. Hailing from Scotland, The Jyrojets are: Colin Fraser (Lead Vox, Guitar), Chris Bain (Guitar, Vox), Martin Stewart (Keys, Vox), Veeb (Drums), Dougie Edwards (Bass). Their debut album is set for release late summer, and they released a single, ‘Favourite Thing About Jane’, on 14 May. They have supported some big names; Richard Ashcroft, Dirty Pretty Things, The Kaiser Chiefs and The Ordinary Boys, and played festivals in Spain and Moscow. Overall they sounded a bit like The Supernaturals, a late 1990’s indie-pop band, also from Scotland, who enjoyed minor chart success with hits such as Smile, I Wasn't Built to Get Up, Love Has Passed Away and The Day Before Yesterday's Man. Strangely enough, I saw The Supernaturals at Fibbers as well, and frankly, I thought that they were a lot better than the Jyrojets. So a bit of a disappointment, but at least it was smoke-free.

After the gig we literally ran through York, in and out of doorways, trying to avoid the torrential rain, to get to The Old White Swan where Hazzard County were just finishing off their first set. I was drenched but the thing that made the barmaid laugh was a red badge on my jacket lapel which read ASBO, in fact a promotional badge for a single by Limousine. Sitting at a table right in front of the stage area was Chris Helme (ex-Seahorses, now The Yards). Later in the evening I had a chat with Chris who was pretty shattered after an exhausting week. He left some flyers with me for The Yards next gig at The Post Office Club on Marygate, Thursday 26th July.

Saturday evening was a trip to the Roman Bath where Bradfordband Full Tilt treated us to a cacophony of rock classics, covers from the likes of; Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Bad Co., Free, Lenny Kravitz, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Metallica, G’n’R (well strictly speaking Bob Dylan’s Knocking’ on Heavens Door), and Nirvana.