February 3, 2006
The Cavern Bar at The Boat Inn was packed with eager musicians from the four bands playing and music fans attending this inaugural night. Each band were scheduled to play half hour slots with a rapid change over from one group to the next. The essence of the event is to encourage professionalism in performance and team work overall.
Friday’s line up featured acts 12 Gauge Justice, 8 Lives Down, Archaic and Luna Fall from towns as far afield as Mansfield and Chesterfield. The standard of musicianship and song writing was impressive to say the least. Each band played a mixture of original songs and well chosen cover versions that encapsulated that particular band’s style of music and their influences. 12 Gauge Justice were a young band who played an aggressive lively Thrash Metal set. 8 Lives Down were guitar and drum driven Punk/Rock who delivered a highly energetic set ending with a stunning cover of The Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop.
Archaic played an exciting power Rock/Punk really enjoying themselves and performing well to the crowd. The headliners Luna Fall were the only female fronted group whose set of originals showed that their influences are drawn from the likes of U2, Pink Floyd, Distillers and Limp Bizkit. They were really tight and showed promise as song writers. A great band to end the evening.
The four groups were all impressive in their own ways. It goes to show how important a regular event like this can be to showcase new local talent. This first night was an absolute success. Organiser Steve Rawlinson ably helped by Jim Angus did a great job in marshalling the musicians and delivering high quality sound in staging a fantastic evening
Review by Kevin White
