[psydoll]

Argh I spoke too soon! Tonight contained everyone's second favourite topic - utterly shite bands! Thus ruining my fantastic hit record and threatening to loom large over a fantastic few days and dampen my spirits! Does our intrepid Snarfalike make it through a night of obvious lyrics, horrifying band names and heckling genius having to be restrained?!? Read on dear traveller! Read on!

T Break heats are always a bit of a mixed bag. Although this is the first one I've attended I can recall reading many lineups for these things and thinking that some really DREADFUL bands get through into these things. Hopefully the system weeds them out. I've only been to one TITP so far and didn't really check out any of the T Break Stage apart from Allergo and Certain Death but I already knew I liked them.

I missed Draw thanks to hunting for cash machines in Edinburgh. A fruitless task I often find. I am later proved right to be relieved that this has happened as their fans seemed like twats.

I resolve to abandon my cash machine-related problems to head back the the venue. Mainly because I knew Small Enclosed Area are on next and I wish not to miss any of them. I do miss the first song and blunder about in the darkness of the balcony level during their second song acting not unlike a newborn hedgehog with my spiky hair and waving arms in the blinding darkness. My zombie impressions appear to go un-noticed by the masses lurking in the dark nursing their over-priced pints in plastic glasses and I eventually make my way down to the front of the stage. The sound's even better than the night before and the drums actually feel like I'm being punched in the chest. It was nice seeing SEA up on a stage when I thought about it as all the other times I've seen them have been pretty much on floor level. More space means a bit more rocking out than usual and the dross following them makes them seem even heavier than the previous night. Ross also manages to foil the official photographer nearly every time she tries to take a shot of his face so I'm hoping for a big photo of Ross' arse when the review of the show appears...

Playtone are up next. I don't think I can really say anything good about them. Shite name, amusing bass player with upturned collar and 'rock bass stance' that he seemed to have to strike before playing any notes, RUBBISH lyrics! "It's been a while/since I've seen you smile" was a memorable highlight as I recall. Tawngy plasticy sounding acoustic guitar and a frontman with that 'annoyance' factor where he seems to be really sure his band are amazing when they're generic as you can be really. Amusement factor aside they were shocking. A crime if they go through.

Douglas Kay is up next and plays some quite nice songs that he describes as bittersweet. He seems like quite a nice, camp chap so I won't be too nasty. He was boring though and the fact that he had his website written on his guitar narked me a bit for some reason. The set also made me feel very tired but at least he didn't have many obnoxious fans!

The Abdominal Showmen then performed some crazy Korg-rap kinda set with Scottish rapping which was sadly mostly unintelligible for me [I'm left wondering if it's the sound or the voice that the dude's using] at least apart from a line about Matthew Kelly being out the back playing with the kids which raised some chucklage on my part. It was at least entertaining and woke me up but I've always despised that "wacky factor" that some bands seem to be going for and I remember Mo*Ho*Bish*O*Pi had those little lights on their head like the bassplayer did and I got sick of them pretty quick. I don't think they played similar music mind at all. My favourite part was when the frontman whacked the roof with his cane by mistake but at least he laughed about it. Perhaps this band would be like what would happen if the Videos had parents that decided to form a band to mentally scar and mildly mock their kids band. Had the biggest dancing crowd along with them. Does that count? Do the judges count how many people in the audience are going to T In The Park? I'm intrigued to see how these guys went down...

My first viewing of the Stacatto Set is a pleasing one. [I'm trying to keep this short as it's getting really early and I'm still pissing about on here writing rubbiss] All three guys are talented musicians and it's not really the kind of music that I expected this band to play for some reason. Some phenomenal drumming from Jim at times and a distinct lack of shouts of "He's a cunt!" from either side of the room. Stupid "I'm in love with the band Draw!" heckling is heard but that's rubbiss. If you're going to heckle at least have the decency to swear min.

Overall I enjoyed the T Break heat I guess - the sets are short so it keeps things quite fresh as the bands change over but there's always the chance of having to watch a short set of utter drivel but as they say if you've a hunger for the band equivalents of delicious pieces of sweetcorn then you might well have to dig through a lot of shite to find them.

7 Yus Mins out of 10 but only because of Playtone and Draw [or at least their fans]