Disclaimer: This review features subjective commentary which some might find somewhat harsh and/or rude. If you are easily offended by such things then please close this window now. Thank you.
They say patience is a virtue, but quite frankly, this is just ridiculous!
It's just as well I don't have writing gig reviews as a job, otherwise I'd have been fired 100x over for my insane and continual lateness. Yes, I realise this post comes TWO MONTHS after the fact, but I've been trying to motivate myself to write this as objectively as possible (you can ask
bagel - she was witness to some of it!), though I must say, as you will soon see, I pretty much failed and have decided to stop stalling and just get it over and done with, SO, without further ado...
It is a consistent habit of mine to have high expectations of things, even when I realise that I'm jumping the gun a little, and with an imagination as wild as mine, it is no wonder I am almost always left disappointed when reality comes knocking. Not to say the entire evening was a total waste of time or anything, but there were definitely points where I was wondering why on earth I was there...
... FOR EXAMPLE, during the set of the first band, '
Spirits'.
[Alex, Spirits]
Now ignoring all their blah blah Elliot Minor potential and what-not, I honestly feel that their set was below par, by any band's standards. It is always difficult to be the opening band and having the pressure of reeling in an already sceptical crowd, but I think they could have done a better job at it regardless. More crowd interaction and a more solid musical performance overall (sorry, but it's not an hour set, so cheating on those high and long notes is not excusable, alex) would have helped out on that front, but I suppose this was only their 2nd(?) ever gig (and they were even missing their bassist this time!), so they're still trying to 'find their groove' as it were, which is forgivable. I will also admit, that I was quite pleased with their performance of their song 'Unbreakable'; it was every bit as punchy live as it was the first time I heard it. All in all, while there is still a lot to improve on, I believe that, in time, they will be able to rise to the occasion.
The next band to play was called '
Serpico', who, just so you know, I have known about for a while and have even met on a couple of occasions but have always thoroughly dismissed without a second thought. Now, I hate to admit this, but other than my general distaste for the music, there is little fault I can make of their performance. From what I saw, they were the second most popular band of the night and I can kind of see why. Their set was energetic and well executed, the singer interacting well with the crowd and overall they really looked like the knew what they were doing. Even my extremely hard to impress companion (*ahem* isabel *ahem*) admitted to having been won over by the show they put on, so not bad guys, not bad.
[Serpico and fans]
[Serpico]
Second to last was '
The Bastard Sons'. I'm not really sure what to say about their performance, as about half way into their set the singer started rolling around on the floor, and though at first I thought that was his way of getting into the music, it later appeared to be something slightly more serious, so I can't really fault them for that. However, up until that point, all I can say is that their set was powerful. It was a huge contrast to the two previous bands and came as quite a shock to someone like me who wasn't sure what to expect, but served to be an extreme yet somewhat valid segue between the first and second half of the gig. I especially liked the 'light box' thing the singer would occasionally stand on which lit up when pressure was applied to it, as it definitely added to the drama of it all.
[The Bastard Sons]
Finally, we come to the final act of the night, '
THROW THE GOAT'! As expected, the closing band was the most popular of the night, and that really comes as no surprise as even I (who, shamefully, cannot admit to being much of a fan) found their set to be really quite enjoyable to watch! I was very surprised that, as such a young band, they were already so determined to cross water and invade the British music scene and was worried that they would not be too well received. Thankfully, I was wrong. I had initially anticipated (and please don't hate me for saying this) that a lot of their popularity would be riding on Brian's (lead guitarist) prior connection to Elliot Minor, but from the number of unfamiliar faces I saw that night, I am happy to report that that is not the case. Their performance exceeded my expectations and was very much the highlight of the night, both in terms of quality of performance and general professionalism (once again, a band who really knew how to entertain) and I even found myself at times distracted from my task of taking photos as I would occasionally stop to
fully watch, wanting to take it all in. So basically... yeah, they put on a good show.
[Michael and Johnny, Throw The Goat]
[Brian, Throw The Goat]
[Throw The Goat]
And so ends my long awaited gig review. I am very sorry for dragging this out for so long, and imagine that any potential interest there may have been for its contents has been lost, but at the end of the day all I can say is, I tried, and every word that is written there, I meant 100% (yes, sadly, even the mean ones). I'd also like to say to anyone out there who has yet to listen to any of these bands or see them live, it's worth giving them a shot, even if I indirectly said they sucked or whatever. I'm just being an overly critical bitch. =P
-Philippa. x
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PS.: i know i forgot to add my watermark to some of them, but just fyi, all these photos are property of me, so please no stealing, i worked very hard on them.
PPS.: sorry for the stupid half border on that last pic - i was using crappy free editting software! ><
PPPS.: also, sorry for the poor writing quality. i got so desperate to write
something that i kind of forgot how to write at all!
