My little review
I thought the gig was very well put together with a good choice of bands, there was a nice mix.
Contra - wasn't too sure about them for the first two songs. A little too American punk stuff for me - not really my kind of music. However I started warming to them. They had some really good bits. There was a slower song with no distortion, that was kind of chilled out. I thought it was a work of genius. It reminded me of the police and even little bits of Biffy Clyro, had a nice lazy slow clean guitar solo. By the end of their set I was starting to like them, although they maybe played for a little too long? The singer seemed to put across a bit of personality somehow which always makes me like a band more.
The instrumental song was pretty rocking too. I liked that.
The Staccatto Set - These guys were really good. I like the ambience they put across. The singing was good, he had a good voice. The musicianship was pretty good as well, the guitars and keyboards worked really well together, and the rythym section was good at playing just the right bits. They had good presence as well - the big pauses for the "I'm in love with a chorus" bit, and the german translation showed a real confidence with their stuff.
Eric Euan - Wasn't so sure about these guys. i could see what they were aiming for with the sort of off-kilter rock, and I liked the sound they had (not too much gain for the heavy bits) but it didn't seem to add up for me somehow. There were some nice bits, but it didn't catch my attention. The guitarist with the white Les Paul's voice wasn't really that good - it's not that he couldn't sing but I didn't like the voice. Plus, it seemed as if what they were doing could be done with just two guitars. If you're gonna use three you really need to get good parts for all three.
Overall, i think that maybe they just weren't playing that well - had an off gig or something. i can imagine deadenstereo coming across like that sometimes when we're not playing well.
As for us, I think we played well even though it was the first time any of us had seen each other in a month and a half. However, we promise to have more than 6 songs next time! We've started getting pretty ruthless about cutting songs that aren't good enough, so now we have a 20 minute set or something. I suppose I could smoke a whole joint while playing our intro bit or something?
Anyway, I felt pretty inspired by the bands from last night - gave me some new ideas, so I'll be taking my pink guitar ("the vulva") out for a little riff writing today.
Craig
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