A memory from a past life...
As promised, here is the first of the reviews I wrote for The Nottingham Pulse listings magazine between 1997 and 1999. I thought I'd start at the beginning, so this is my very first contribution to the publication, a review of a 'Battle of the Bands' competition first published in November 1997.
Smirnoff Battle of the Bands (semi-final), Sam Fay's, Sunday Oct. 12, 1997
Tonight's three semi-finalists in this competition for unsigned bands each made it through one of ten heats designed to sort the wheat from the chaff. Well if this is the wheat then it looks like there has been some sort of crop failure! It's not that the bands were bad, it's just that they weren't that good either.
First on were Wave, a four-piece pitched somewhere between Paul Weller and Radiohead, with a hint of the Stooges and The Beatles thrown in. Featuring a useful vocalist and with a couple of catchy tunes, Wave were alright, but nothing more. Simply, they were too mired in the cliches of their chosen genre to really engage.
The second band were Bombscare, whose punky thrash brought to mind Hole, Nirvana, L7 and the like. While showing more willingness to experiment than Wave (notably with their take on funk, 'Divided'), ultimately Bombscare were even less interesting. The problem was that their music is all about dramatising alienation (hence titles like 'Blackest cloud') but to do this well (paradoxically) requires good communication and having the ability to make the audience feel their pain. Failure to connect (as Bombscare showed) reduces social critique to a bedroom sulk.
The final semi-finalists were Elfin (from Sheffield) who had the best gear and the best sound. However, as they demonstrated with their opening couple of numbers, they also had too much regard for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Then the effects boxes came out and the music became more adventurous, although not always better. 'Sider', for instance, came over as an ill-judged meeting between Pink Floyd and Extreme. To be fair though, the last couple of tracks, 'A little pilgrim' and 'Mystery Machine' (with its 'Scooby Doo' scat section) were probably the most accomplished efforts of the evening, if nothing to really set the pulses racing. Hence Elfin's victory was not unexpected, even if, by and large, this semi-final was very much a tale of the expected. Let's hope for more surprises in weeks to come.
Smirnoff Battle of the Bands (semi-final), Sam Fay's, Sunday Oct. 12, 1997
Tonight's three semi-finalists in this competition for unsigned bands each made it through one of ten heats designed to sort the wheat from the chaff. Well if this is the wheat then it looks like there has been some sort of crop failure! It's not that the bands were bad, it's just that they weren't that good either.
First on were Wave, a four-piece pitched somewhere between Paul Weller and Radiohead, with a hint of the Stooges and The Beatles thrown in. Featuring a useful vocalist and with a couple of catchy tunes, Wave were alright, but nothing more. Simply, they were too mired in the cliches of their chosen genre to really engage.
The second band were Bombscare, whose punky thrash brought to mind Hole, Nirvana, L7 and the like. While showing more willingness to experiment than Wave (notably with their take on funk, 'Divided'), ultimately Bombscare were even less interesting. The problem was that their music is all about dramatising alienation (hence titles like 'Blackest cloud') but to do this well (paradoxically) requires good communication and having the ability to make the audience feel their pain. Failure to connect (as Bombscare showed) reduces social critique to a bedroom sulk.
The final semi-finalists were Elfin (from Sheffield) who had the best gear and the best sound. However, as they demonstrated with their opening couple of numbers, they also had too much regard for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Then the effects boxes came out and the music became more adventurous, although not always better. 'Sider', for instance, came over as an ill-judged meeting between Pink Floyd and Extreme. To be fair though, the last couple of tracks, 'A little pilgrim' and 'Mystery Machine' (with its 'Scooby Doo' scat section) were probably the most accomplished efforts of the evening, if nothing to really set the pulses racing. Hence Elfin's victory was not unexpected, even if, by and large, this semi-final was very much a tale of the expected. Let's hope for more surprises in weeks to come.
posted by Justin Toland at 10:36 pm
1 Comments:
hehe Just did a search to see if there's any reference to my old band on the internet and found your review. I was the drummer in Elfin (so was clearly the best and obviously nothing to do with any effects-based dodginess..
Nice work for reposting it! It's been a while..
Leon
www.leonneal.com
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