March 9, 2005
Zealous
Three-piece band Zealous travelled down from Halifax to bring Junktion 7 some powerful grunge rock n roll, not too far from the Foo Fighters. They started their set, and it was immediately apparent that these guys were well experienced and musically profound, their sound was not without a disciplined creatively complex undercarriage. The frontman was not to be lost in the volume of his band, with his clear vocals, strong use of expression. The busy and unorthodox drumming pioneered the long, distorted instrumental sections, and alongside the fast, dark and dramatic basslines, lead the sound through melodic intros and loud, busy choruses, while keeping up inventive variation between each song in their set.
http://www.myspace.com/zealous
Moriarty
Moriarty boasted The Blueprint’s drummer Chris Billam among their line-up, and he didn’t let them or us down with sheer technique, but in fact his drums dominated the sound and heavily drowned out the bass through most of it. Neither of the two guitars seemed to settle into a constant lead or rhythm roll, each of them taking it in turns to bring in a grungy intro or a few metal edged riffs to this otherwise simple yet inventive indie rock. It was a confident and comfortable performance, and each song was distinctive within their ‘genre’ and still managed to follow similar patterns. The only that let Moriarty down seemed to be the vocals, they were bland and unvaried in tone, but they were delivered clearly, and they used some nice and unusual vocal patterns.
The Ambassadors
The Ambassadors were headlining tonight, and delved straight into dirty funk rock, echoing the retro sounds of Dire Straits and the E Street Band coming through in their instrumental sections with the use of a continuing organ sound back-lining their songs. The bass gave away their contemporary Kings Of Leon style, with simple but effectively timed lyrics and uncomplicated guitar suiting the band’s personality. The drums settled into a beat well, but leapt off the wall and up in tempo and style when needed. There was again, a good variation between the songs, they manipulated simple music and made it into a misleadingly complicated set. We were plunged into darkness two thirds of the way through, as thepower cut out for the whole of Canning Circus, that’s your tax dollars at work.
http://www.myspace.com/theambassadorsofrock
Reviewed by: Steph
Photos by Glynn
