Just so you know I do get it wrong sometimes, I managed to miss both The Peski Kings and The White Light since the event started early - and I didn't!! Hey ho!!
So, just as I walked in, on stage came The Frets. Been a while since I last saw them play live. They began on a track that featured some excellent three-part vocal harmonies, an evocative lead vocal, some spiraling bass runs up and down the neck of the thing, electric guitar work with great depth and full of feeling, while the arrangement of the song was kept at a sensible pace with no attempt to over do things, and the drums remained solid throughout. The song itself possessed a decent hook-as-chorus with more exquisite harmonies and a great opener, not to mention a band who seems to have progressed in leaps if this is anything to go by. You may have thought that "Susan" would conform more to the Draymin ways of the indie-dance force, but they avoided that by featuring chopy and bouncy rhythms with a vocal on the raw side of harmonious as the guitars give real muscle to the sound, altho' while addictive rhythmically and solid overall, there's no particular hook. "These Days" is a big sounding track, almost a flowing type of indie power ballad, the whole song acting as the hook, full of passion in both playing and singing. "Do Nothing" featured a vocal with a decided Ian Brown feel to it, as a more anthemic approach with solid rhythmic foundations showed its colours, featuring some more great bass work and chopy, lurching drum work,plus a vast expanse of twin guitar depth with some hot leads but no particular solo space, all in a way, a bit like a more raw Stone Roses-meets- Indianapolis as the song builds into this strong impassioned track with some neat guitar work throughout. The next song up was great, a bit faster, really anthemic with more excellent vocal harmonies, solid playing all round but no real chorus onto which to latch. "Don't Let Me Down" featured a stinging guitar intro and a stunning chorus while the high register lead guitar work is well upfront above solid bass, chunky drums and expansive rhythm guitar. There's a wicked lead guitar break while the singer gives a truly emotive full-on performance on what is a superbly written and arranged song. Sixth track in has spiralling guitar work, a faster pace and also hapens to be the best song of the set so far - a real indie-pop gem with cyclical guitar as hook, solid rhythms, a soaring vocal getting more intense as it leads into each chorus with authority. A huge, full, solid sound on an absolutely superb song, whose only drawback is that it's short - you could have done with more of this one!! Track 7 opens with excellent dual guitar work over pounding beats that reminded me a bit of The Weekend Pickups and The Draymin combined with one helluva good instrumental workout as solid lead guitar fly over vocals that extoll the virtues of disco!! The song - for it is a song - appears after the lengthy intro, doesn't last too long, then the band flies on what's a really excellent set closer with some searing lead guitars on show as the lengthy track just glows as it goes, gloriously electrifying and showcasing the band at its instrumental best. All in all, a superb set!
Val Verde from Dunfermline were just stunning - I'd not seen them before but they were polished and alive with a set of superb songs. The opener was a kind of addictive indie-ska number while the second opened with a shimmering guitar lead as the song builds to a huge intensity and breaks out into its chorus in a very professional manner as the whole band plays as one then the guitar breaks out on a red hot mid-song solo, as it all flies along. Third track is a huge-sounding anthem that goes up and down before building into a huge expanse of guitars above pummelling bass, pounding drums, with a seriously hi-flying Draymin-esque vocal over a jumbo jet of a song with an equally large vocal performance. The song twists and turns, flying along on a huge tidal wave of guitar heat - superb!! The next one was another big, big song, in many ways a great album track, but not a great single, if you get my drift. Fifth up and a return to the indie-ska style with a more solid feel for its style. A stop-start approach turns into a rousing indie anthem with big 3-part harmonies and a huge chorus before coming to a quieter end. The final track, "Diego", reminded me a bit of Grace Emilys mixed with (obscure reference time) Terry & The Pirates styled lead vocal and stinging guitar work. Once again, very solid as it surges ahead with its mexican falvoured indie-americana stride. Excellent band - this review doesn't do them justice - more soon, no doubt....
The Deals played a six song set which got better and better as it went along. They have a quite visually attention-grabbing lead vocalist whose singing, at first seems a bit featureless, but stick with it, and it all comes together as the set moves on. Things start to grab your attention on the second track with a solid lurching indie dance feel to it as ringing lead guitar drops back, the vocal enters and the song accelerates thanks to the driving drumwork and punding bass. The guitars ring out over the vocalist almost hollering, half singing the lead while the harmony vocals are merely OK and the song itself slightly faceless but still solid. The third track surges ahead as the guitars ring out in oposite directions and the rhythm section lurches along with some rock solid bass work. The song accelerates briefly before droping down to the verse, a lead guitar sliding to the front. While the singer is exuding passion and intensity, the song's hook just narrowly misses its mark. Fourth track and a bit more pace as the vocalist comes alive a bit more as it all drives ahead with intensity and more shards of lead guitar work. The bass work really cuts through as the dramatic drum work maintains the foundations. The song's chorus is not an obvious hok, but works. A mid-song guitar break is delivered with passion followed by wordless vocal anthemics as the band let it all take off into a roaring, short, sharp finale. Fourth track is a slower, more deliberate, almost bluesy number which builds and strengthens as reliable dual guitars provide lead and rhythm density. The backing is solid, it's sung with passion and, once again, is nearly there as a memorable slice of songwriting. The fifth track agian narroly misses its target while the final track features a much more cohesive, aggressive vocal, bursts of guitar leads, strident rhythms and a memorable hook of sorts, decidedly the best track of the set as far as it hanging around in your head goes. You do get the feeling that this band do have it in them but that the writing right now is narrowly missing the mark as regards remembering it all after it's gone.
I've seen a lot of bands on the Scottish unsigned scene in my years, but I've never heard anything like The Doldrums! They began with a seriously short song that was essentially sixties flavoured indie skiffle with a Beatles feel and jangly guitars. The next one was more of the same but more of a stomper. The vocal was a tad flat as it goes into a more faster paced approach then slows down into a sort of mid-paced ska element then swings back to how it began. Third track sounded like something you'd hear in a James Bond movie or a sixties film where this is the bar band playing in the background. It's a really cohesive track, nevertheless, mid-paced with broding vocal and, once again, very short. Fourth track moves into a more Doors-influenced type of thing, with keyboard work in there, only lighter in feel and bouncier as their pop influences come to the fore. Then comes an indie-country rock ballad with more jangly guitar, sprightly beats and "yeehawww" brooding vocals, almost like a darker, more countrified version of The Law!! By tracks six's stomping country song, you have to wonder if the band is serious or not - as an insanely catchy barn dance of a number proves irresistible with more jangly guitars - a song you hate to love!! Track 7 is a slower, stil bouncy number, in a way, the most contemporary sounding track in the set to date, with a more flowing vocal as the song builds along side dual guitars working well, all still country flavoured with something that's almost a hook in there too. By track 8 you're thinking "this really IS an indie-country band" muttering "bizarre" as you stand there and marvel at it. After a track I missed, there's this lengthy one that returns to the Doors style of approach while the set ends with something that's more akin to a Duane Eddy number gone country in a sixties Michael Caine movie. The only word for this is "unreal" - but I've got to see them again, that's for sure!!
Monrow were way better than last time I saw them - the opening track is, for starters, more urgent and alive, solid and driving but with a lighter, more indie-pop sensibility, undenaible strength to the songwriting, a strong vocal performance throughout, neat use of dual guitars that's not cliched but works well. The next track is quite fast as it veritably stomps ahead with a great hook and a chorus, spiralling guitar riffing, an urgent vocal, even a hint of country appeal, a bit like Beatnic Prestige in parts, needs a slightly fuller sounding vocal or harmonies but is still really catchy for all that. Next track is similar only slower with another striking example of catchy rhythmic indie drive - a serious song delivered with punch and passion, with a full-bodied guitar sound that's a step above jangly. Fourth one starts with a throaty holler then accelerates into this anthemic slice of singalong live action that works superbly as a crowd pleasing live track but you can't imagine it as an album track. Fifth in and more rousing rhythms, starting slower but quickly building up a head of steam as it all takes off once again. Definitely a live band to get the audience leaping about.
The Ray Summers (I think that's the name) were incredible - and you'll se why in a second. They begain with a track that featured a sort of "Fintstones"-esque B52's-gone contemporary indie style, with wah wah guitar, cheesy organ work and bouncy rhythms, a bit like a Munsters theme song and having you scratching your head as to what's about to come. It gets more bizarre when the next track begins with late sixties organ work, funky bass as you're now thinking "heck!, it's Sly & The Family Stone" as chopy rhythms and electric piano turn out to be an introduction to the next song proper that starts with perfectly sung multi-part vocal harmonies over a very sixties sounding backing with organ paving the way. Then it suddenly flies into a fast-paced mix of anthem, funk and pop and dance with a seriously professional sound - clean, solid, superb harmony vocals that the Eagles would have been proud to call their own and a really flowing song with a yearning lead vocal, subtle guitar work and all totally sixties sounding yet somehow not feeling "dated". Third track starts with soid rhythms, slower, as wah wah guitar paves the way into a lurching, semi-ska rhythm as gorgeous multi-part vocals, seventies wah wah guitar, flowing organ and a soaring lead vocal, the seventies sounding track performed to such a degree as to sound quite refreshing, although lord knows what anyone under the age of about 40 was thinking of it.. There's even a kind of spacey synth fx as the song storms into a kind of emotive space-rock finale. Bizarre!! Fourth track opens with a loud accapella holler then goes all funky - seventies funk with harmonies-a-plenty, emotive lead vocal as the guitar flies in then flies out as the harmony vocals lead another song that's got a real flow to it, some3thing you feel really shouldn't sound as good as it does in 2008, but this band make it work as it's clearly been rehearsed to the point of perfection as sixties cabaret meets seventies funk with electric piano, soaring vocals, strident rhythms and a really addictive performance prove to be quite mesmerising, not to mention quite lengthy, too. The fifth track was the first one that could be called "fast" - sort of Grateful Dead with a rocket up its backside - as it then decelerates into this ska-laced rhythm with organ, a chorus of "right on" in multi-part harmonies, gradually slowing until it all suddenly reverts to its fast-paced verse, all done quite flawlessly. The final 3 tracks are all similar, occasionally more varied with subtler textures, always funky beats, the ever present harmonies and, again, absolutely wreaking of early seventies and Woodstock (the film, not the town). Quite amazing band, and if this lot ever hooked up with fellow Scots band The Wyre to tour, anyone into seventies rock will be falling over themselves to get to the gig!!
So it fell to the enigma that is now Peg & The Bouffants - the band that's breaking all the rules of what's going to be big in indie music in 2009 - to close the event. Assembled on stage with vocalists Janine and Kirsty up front, the band immediately began with a new song where Janine's vocal led the way on a slice of addictive ska, sounding altogether more harmonious a vocal than ever. But the band's arranging continues to amaze, as somewhere in there they've added a definite Latino edge to the vocal hooks, but still the flowing mix of jazzy sax and solid beats plus textural guitar providing the strong backing. What you are also aware of is just how tight at playing the band has become, nothing falling out of place, everything spot on. Both vocalists surge through the song and choruses with their salsa-esque harmonies and it's a great beginning. Up next was "Bedrock", faster and tighter played with an equally fast lead vocal with both singers flying on the chorus, fast as light ska-fusion with bite, strength and purpose. Even the slower song was performed fast - a bona fide slice of breathless ska with Kirsty on lead vocal and Janine leading the chorus, the sax now integrated into the band as a whole, no longer sounding "away" from the arrangement. "Scenester" has been transformed in a year from a quite ragged disparate song to a thing of strength that just flows along with a stunning dual vocal performance from the girls, a seriously melodic sax sounding great on top of it all, the band tight and powerful. Surging lead guitar riffing leads the way as the band drops back then roars into a storming slice of cascading hip hop as only they can play it, with bite and harmonies, the 2 female vocals making it sound so much more melodic without once losing the vitality. The punk number featuring Peg on vocals now has a really full sound to it, a 3-part vocal chorus and surging dual guitars as Callum vacates sax for guitar, the rhythm section, as ever, whipping it all into shape. Again performed quite fast, "Beanie Boy" came and went, while, equally paced, so did "Deceiter", both tracks every bit as addictive as what's gone before, with the audience lapping it all up and leaping about the place, the band as visually commanding as they are now sounding. But here, for the first time, I'd sound a note of caution, as much for the studio as for the live venue. This band has some fantastic tracks inits arsenal, more so now than before - and in "Deceiter", they have a track worthy of a top 20 place. So, I would say to the band, please don't let the speed of the performance mask the quality of the song - a track such as "Deceiter" works by virtue of its mix of pace, strength and dynamics - I'd hate to see some incredibly catchy and forceful songs "lost" merely down to the band's desire to play them as fast as possible - but that's just me, I guess. Ya just gotta love this band!!