October 27, 2004
Lucky Bullet began tonight’s proceedings, filling the stage with five members, including a keyboard player, and admittedly, I immediately thought, here we go, more barely audible background screechings. But I was put in my place straight away by some of the best use of a keyboard in a live rock band I can quite comfortably say I’ve seen. Weaving effects with a strong 80’s electro influence, gave a dramatic, yet soothing backline to their increasingly mesmerising sound.
Their intro to the set was a slow moving, gradually building, and impressive display of all four instruments working off each other to create a symphony of complex patterns. You couldn’t decide which bit you wanted to listen to, and so resigned into letting it all crawl on as one melodic, almost psychedelic composition.
Dark, protruding bass, and well chosen and well used effects on both the guitar and the vocals, showed that Lucky Bullet are thinking outside the box, and aren’t troubled to do so. This was music to shut your eyes, sit back and listen to, with passionate lyrics, unwavering vocal tones, precision timing, and continuous undulation between a building, then residing sound, ensuring that there was nothing repetitive for you to lose interest in.
The rather, charismatic, shall we say, frontman showed the most movement out of the band, sometimes getting lost in all of the above, and occasionally knocking over some mic stands. The rest of them had a more responsible demeanour, so obviously there wasn’t an awful lot of competition for the attention of the crowd, but he was up to the challenge and, along with the help of a bunch of drunken mates at the back, provided plenty entertainment between the songs.
A few rai sed eyebrows greeted Cyphers Dawn when they took position, minus their bassist. It being the bassist’s 21st birthday, he was otherwise engaged, and the stand in bassist was ill, so a bit of a nightmare for them. But the true spirit of ‘The show must go on.’ came out in absurdly loud guitar, aggressive vocals and drumming brimful of fills.
Having not heard Cyphers Dawn before tonight, it was hard to notice the lack of the bassist, obviously there was a lack of bass generally in the mix of sound, but they managed to make it seem like they didn’t need one.
The vocalist had a strong gritty voice, and the rolling but sometimes punchy guitar riffs, worked well and fitted their fierce emo / screamcore sound.
Although large sections of their songs were pretty simple musically, and yeah, it would have probably come across better with the bass, there were parts in there which showed what they could do, with immaculate technique bringing ear-catching picked riffs, and powerfully emphasised choruses.
We were very impressed with Cyphers Dawn for just getting on and doing it anyway, just goes to show that panicking and sulking is about as necessary as laminated mars-bars.
Toning the mood back down to a mellow rocking, and an atmospheric rolling, Ashborn brought relaxed, heart-felt harmless indie rock to the table. It was an infectiously relaxed performance, with warm sounds to their slower songs, and memorable, catchy riffs the more upbeat ones. Impressive use of effects on the 5 string bass, especially on the last song, showed that Ashborn arenÂ’t as mainstream sounding as you may have first thought, and the clever, inspired lyrics go on to confirm that. Some excellent slap bass, loud drums and well placed backing vocals gave emphasis to AshbornÂ’s song writing and musical ability, if only the frontmanÂ’s acoustic was a little louder, itÂ’s not that it couldnÂ’t be heard at all, but a bit more umph gone into it, and their overall sound would be that bit richer and fuller. They knew what they were doing on stage, and provided plenty of crowd interaction, and werenÂ’t afraid to move around, or smile. There was a slight lack in variation between the songs, as IÂ’ve said before there were some slow, and some with a few more balls, but with lack of variation comes consistency, well obviously, and that meant that throughout their set, there wasnÂ’t a bad track among the bunch.
I think I ’ve finally got my tongue around the sound of The Zapatistas and their name, and I’m very glad to hear that they’ve got their sound sorted too. Although the Junktion 7 PA will have had something to do with the improvement since we last saw them, their general performance was tighter, more confident, and it really looked like they were enjoying this one.
Simple and distinct riffs, fast, instinctive drumming and funky bass (another five string, ooh we are spoilt!) that got your foot tapping, and you grinning helplessly to the happy, happy Brit-rock to almost ska and back again, styling of The Zapatistas.
The guitarist and bassist showed their adaptability, after swapping instruments, and vocal rolls, although the bassist’s voice wasn’t as smooth and strong as the guitarist’s.
Being a 3 piece, they weren’t going to take up much of the stage anyway, but they were set up so that the bassist and guitarist were both front and centre, thus making the stage look huge, and creating a less than enthralling stage presence during the songs. In between songs they seem to relax a bit, and spoke to the crowd readily.
The Zapatistas have a very enjoyable set, full of feel-good tracks, and some great instrumental sections to their songs, and a set that they seem very happy playing, and a set that made the crow seem very happy listen to.
To see more pictures from this gig click here Review ~ Steph Photos ~ Glynn
Written By Steph
Photos ~ Glynn
