July 13, 2005
Apache Rose began the J7 heat we’ve made it to this year, and we were launched straight into their indie/grunge/rock n roll styling. They began with powerful vocals and impressive guitar dynamics and with a confident lead vocalist who had a good connection with the audience, but after the first few tracks the power behind the voice started to get a bit lost amongst the energetic drums and the full conviction of their sound.
Considering Apache Rose are a three-piece band they managed to produce a busy, energetic sound, not too dissimilar to Idlewild, which was simple but very effective, and quite psychedelic at times, with some great build ups really kicking it up a gear during the instrumental sections.
There’s no doubting the musical ability of these guys, but on occasions the lead singer/bassist seemed a little uncomfortable trying to do both, and didn’t seem able to really give all he had on his instrument. They do well for a three-piece, but would definitely benefit from a forth member to take over one roll or the other.
Next band were Menelaus, with former members of Tensile, they put on a great show with lots of energy and emotion. Using stupidly fast guitar riffs to crush the audience into a frenzy, Menelaus know how to create a pint glass smashing atmosphere. With a real deep, dark sound the female vocalist had more balls than a Rhino on heat. With one of the guitarist using good screaming backing vocals that fitted in well. Female vocalists in Metal bands don’t always work well but this really worked, really well! The drummer went completely nuts and with the bassist, kept the sound really tight. It was crazy, breath taking stuff that kept pushing your emotions to the brink of mental breakdown. Angry, beautiful and insane thrash metal with real balls, confidence and charisma. These guys know everything good about heavy music. They use their riffs, vocals and stage to the maximum potential and it fucking rocked!
After the room calmed down from Menelaus, Zadkiel took the stage for a more chilled out, slightly psychedelic out take. Using simple bass lines with melodic guitars and vocals, Zadkiel mixed a nice 90’s vocal sound with a more muse-esque sound, which sadly, got boring after the first few songs. Even though the songs where fairly well written, the band seemed to lack confidence and the guitarist/vocalist seemed distracted by everything apart from playing, picking up plectrums in the middle of songs, messing with his effects and changing guitars but unfortunately not adding any emotion or energy. With a fairly lifeless bassist, they really lacked charisma and really could do with more members, to help them put in more emotional performances in future, as they created no real atmosphere. Their only saving grace was their final song, which seemed more structured and was played with more confidence and had better dynamics and seemed a lot tighter. These guys haven’t been together long and you could really tell. I hope they can improve on their presence as they get more experience as their music did show some good moments, when they seemed to really concentrate.
So after another short break, we are exposed to Trippin Over Wah, but as they walk on stage it looks more like a school recital, as they all seem young but what they lack in age is soon made up in confidence! The front man straight away makes a impression with his cocky, charismatic stage presence. They launch into their interesting and catchy mix of punky, funky, 70’s influenced rock ‘n’ roll. Using catchy riffs with lots of energy and some funky drumming, they breezed through a well-performed set and really got the crowd hyped up. With a nice original edge that had major influence from bands like Deep Purple, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, combined with a hyper modern style that lets their energy flow through. For a bunch of 15 year olds (yes 15!) these guys showed so much potential, putting a really professional and personal performance, Trippin Over Wah rounded up a great BOTB night at J7 with all it’s usual hallmarks. They were certainly one of the most entertaining bands of the night and left everyone feeling in a cheesed-out, upbeat mood as we all made our way downstairs for the result of tonight’s fanciful frolickings.
The winners of the Junktion 7 BOTB heat 2 were……Trippin Over Wah.
