The follow-up, in a sense, from my fairly detailed reviews of the above bands, plus a few more, who took part in the semi-finals, all of which you can view here and here. They were held at Dexters, while the final was held at The Doghouse. Now this is abit akin to holding the heats in Birmingham Town Hall at the final at the NEC, in other words, intimate to quite cavernous. This meant that the bands sounded a whole lot more powerful at the might of the Doghouse PA system, so it was going to be interesting to see who'd cope best with the surroundings. Nearly all the bands had brought a considerable number of followers with them, while voting seemed to count on a show of hands plus text voting.
The first band out of the hat were The Wyre, with their seventies influences flaring out in front of them. Their first song was quite chunky while the second was the one that reminded me last time of a cross between Luva Anna and Wishbone Ash if you could imagine such a thing, with chiming guitars and flowing organ work adding to the deep and rich vocal tones. Third track was more solid stil with a gliss guitar intro that went into a driving band backing, droping back finally to roar ahead. Overall, though, in the heat of the Doghouse, the band sounded a whole lot more contemporary, but they were really the odd band out of the line-up and never stood a chance - loved them to bits though!!
Up next were Safe2Say who I missed in the semi-finals. Their opening track featured the drummer laying down this thunderous backbeat as the vocals soared out, duelling and splintering all over the show. A heavy burst of distant rhythm guitar and bass work were jumping all over the place while the drums proved to be the dominant feature as the vocals - and the song - takes off in raging fashion. Theor set was a set of "splintered" punk rock with more twsists and turns than a maze, hollered dual vocals, rock solid drumming and furious guitar work being paramount, on songs that rise like a rocket and plummet back to earth with alarming regularity, only to rise once more.Theirs is a sound that rages, roars and rocks, sometimes a bit like unfocused musical rifle-fire from a blindfolded batallion al aiming at the same target, but overall, while it possibly wasn't the best set they've ever played, it burned and sizzled for sure.
Up next were hardcore metallers Excellent Cadaver, and they took full advantage of the mighty PA system, with a set that simply had to be experienced to be believed. It was like standing in the middle of a nuclear strike!! This massive blast of hurricane rhythms just roared from the PA system, the basas hitting you in the gut with the force of a ramrod, while this blitz of guitars, riffed, soloed, and just thundered all around you, engulfing the listener in the waves of energy and adrenaline. On top of all this, the vocalist just cut through it all, the mix of hollering and singing on compositions that were real songs and not just vehicles to give your head a good seeing to. Half an hour of almost unbroken musical cataclysm proved to be utterly draining and a wuite breathtaking experience.
Next to apear were funk-rockers Coma Toast. All dressed in red, they probably had one of the most visual apeals of the night, while the songs were drenced with liberal doses of funk bass, solid drumming, dual guitar attack and a sung, throaty holler of a vocal that's so close to working a treat, but not quite there. You still feel that there just needs to be an almost soul-like enhancement in there somewhere and it would all start to gel more - what the guy lacked in soul, he made up for with shouting strength. Instrumentally, this lot were as tight as you'd like with some searing electric guitar and blistering rhythms. However, you come out remembering the playing, the feel of the set, the odd hook or chorus, but not so much the complete songs. You feel it's on the right path but needs better material - well, I did, anyway.
Sharp Edge played after that. Theirs was a fiery wall of sound, a heady, heavy brew of thrashy punk. But somehow I don't feel that they acquitted themselves that well. They didn't seem to get to grips with the PA, whether or not the onstage sound was a bit off I don't know, but the songs came across as more "samey" than before and while the vocalist was really letting rip, somehow it just didn't grab you. Lijke I said last time, a good band, but tonight wasn't them at their best.
Quiver & The Ladysnatchers were up next, and what the Doghouse lost them on subtlety and pop sensibility, they more than made up for with an altogether harder, louder, faster sounding set of songs. The "Paris" track still proved to be the highlight among a great set of memorable tracks, as the rich voiced vocalist more than proved himself up to the occasion while the band rocked and it all gelled magnificently.
Hard To Explain suffere from the fact that the power of the pieces over the PA somehow lost the subtlety and dynamics that made them so much of an snigma the first time round. The songs had a brooding power with an added indie urgency but seemed to lack any real leads, hooks or choruses, or even interesting instrumental breaks, while the verses, for all the power, just didn't come across particularly well.In all, it lacked identity - last time I didn't know what that identity was but I knew it was there - this time it went missing.
The Valentine Project were last on and they credited themselves well enough but it didn't quite have the same magic as before. By this time things were running late, there'd been a load of bands on, the audience numbers had dwindled and they'd been in that place for ages, all of which isn't meant to be an excuse, but while they poured themselves into a solid set of rock-based anthems, the songs actually sounding quite fine with the added force, for once, being at the end of all this, seemed to be the thing not to do anyone any favours. That said, a good set.
So, unsurprisingly, Excellent Cadaver won the battle. Second were Valentine Project (altho' everyone expected Coma Toast) while third were Quiver (who were excellent, for sure). As with all these type of events, eclectic and electrifying, interesting and varied. Hats off to the guys at Red and here's hoping for another next year.