September 1, 2004
As the bands lucky or good enough to get to this stage throw themselves head first into the grind, Swound! relaxed our nerves by not taking a minute of it seriously, entering the Junktion 7 arena to the droning sounds of non other the 50 Cent. That soon changed as we delved into the planet of Swound! with a thrash here and a crash bang there, and constant yelling of absurd lyrics from the front. There was something missing from tonight’s performance though, there was very little humour and general verbal rambling between songs, as is per usual Swound! and not quite enough umph for our liking, the usual meaty sound was compromised, leaving it a bit too light and fluffy. They ended well despite all, with the frontman falling off the barrier, and no matter what the show’s like, if the lead singer falls over, it’s been damn good.
ManPlayingKazoo were up next, and a very professional 30 minutes it was too. They somehow manage to get so many things going on in each and every part of their songs, that you don’t know who’s playing what riffs, nevermind who to look at. Brilliant technique from all members and thoughtfully complex combinations of bass and guitars solos and a continuous clamour of noise coming from the ends of the drumsticks ensured that the music was just as enjoyable as, well, the first time. The vocals lacked clarity in this showing, which was a shame, cos the lyrics aren’t half bad. They tried to get the audience to sing along at one point but that fell through, because no-one actually knew the lyrics, or, were too busy laughing (along with the band) at the fact that it fell though, and getting drunk.
Time to get serious now, it’s time for Running With Scissors and this performance was seriously better than any other I’ve seen by them. For the first time, I genuinely thought Running With Scissors had everything seemingly in place and that extra something it needed. Their performance was pretty much unblemished, and their sound was clear, distinct and as angry metal as it wanted to be. They were on fire tonight. Their movement was, yet again non-existent and I guess you have to resign yourself to the fact that maybe they just don’t want to budge. Well that’s just fine, what they have worked on though, is talking to and looking at the audience, we got some words out of the frontman and not just the bassist between songs, and the lead guitarist, who looked as cool as bacon and as though he was just jammin away in his bedroom, I think even he managed a glace in the crowd’s general direction. If they can keep up that kind of demure they’ll get the crowd on their side, headbangin away insanely, making themselves a much better live act to get off your arse and see.
Its getting to be a little too easy for Wagstaffe I reckon. They just come in here, get on stage, deliver a flawless performance, then stroll out again, I mean who do they think they are? Well, they’re Wagstaffe, and that generally means a show with a non stop fast tempo, dazzling movement on stage, and ridiculously happy riffs that are so pleased with themselves that they just keep coming back song after song. And we didn’t think tonight’s particular show was going to be any particular exception. It was another display of how to do pop-punk, with some great showing off of talent by the musicians, and they delivered on time, and with nothing appearing to have been lost in transit. However, tonight there was something about them that just didn’t seem quite as interesting as the other bands on the night. There was something lacklustre about the crowd interaction; it seemed a gig that they just wanted to get over with, but despite this they carried themselves with all the style of that listed above, hence why I feel it’s getting too easy, even on their not so good nights, Wagstaffe are still pant-wettingly good.
Two bands will be lucky enough to go through to the final of this 11 week long event that hasn’t failed to get the punters in through the doors and the noise levels through the roof, and those two just so happened to be ManPlayingKazoo and Swound! Ooooh-errrr! To see more pictures from this gig click here Review ~ Steph Photos ~ Glynn & Uche
Written By Steph
