Reviewed on 12th September 2004.

6 Fingered Man

Live at The Vine on Saturday, 11th September 2004

What a day to pick as your headline slot at the Vine... 9-11 was host to some damn fine rock action tonight, and not the sort that usually has me in a spin...

The Whippets were up first, and aside from their dubious band name, the music was pretty good. Whilst the singing capabilities of the lead singer/guitarist weren't quite there, the strong melodies, thumping bass lines and strum-as-you like guitars made up for it. After two false starts, the band quickly managed to settle in and do a good show. Highlight of their set was undoubtedly the punk fueled cover of 'No Limit' by dodgy Dutch techno goons 2 Unlimited. Now that was classy.

Libero were up next, and continued the thread of slick guitar based music. The power chords were out in full, the guitars were cranked and the bass was deep. Somehow though, Libero seem to stick to the same formula for every song. Melodic, groovy, but just a little monotonous. It seems that Libero suffer from a lack of colour, but if they just take out the fuzzy Les Paul guitar which was cranked for every song, then they might be onto something. They may only play one song, but it's quite a nice one.

The Forty5s swagger on the stage after Libero depart, and with them look like they've brought the whole Razorlight fanclub with them. The music doesn't stray too far from the aforementioned 'Light either, with their mix of strummy guitars and up beat tempos, they knock out a set that sees them veering from Northern Soul esque funk to indie-lite guitar anthems, and then back to painfully cheesy guitar ballads. Wearing their influences quite blatantly on each sleeve, The Forty5s sound kinda middle of the road for me - as bit too weak in places and a bit too dated in others. That's not to say that they didn't have their own thing going on, because from what crowd there was which wasn't theirs (how about that for a sentence?!) seemed to enjoy it. One guy loved it so much, he danced around like a buffoon before being thrown out for being off his face. Well, that and for showing his arse to the lead singer. He told me he was reviewing for the Yorkshire Evening Post. I think he may have been lying...

The band up next are newbies to the live music scene in Leeds, but somehow don't suffer because of it. 6 Fingered Man crank out some great little rock songs, awash in their own subtleties and hooks. Apparently they get compared to Snow Patrol an awful lot, but in my opinion, that's a good thing. A great thing in fact, because like Gary Lightbody's team of songsmiths, 6 Fingered Man also know how to write a corking little song. And boy do they...

With 'Shame' they have a stadium anthem in waiting and with the blistering riffage of 'Axel Foley', they can keep the harder rock fans happy too. The songs are strong, melodic and pretty damn catchy, and with the soaring vocals of lead singer Drew, the killer hooks from Ian's guitar and the rhythm section of Wallz and Lee being as tight as the proverbial, 6 Fingered Man definitely impress tonight. Maybe some more up- tempo numbers would have been nice, but now I'm just nitpicking.

The crowd was theirs, the playing was solid and the songs were great. Switching gears from down tempo prettiness to up tempo rock monsters, 6 Fingered Man give it their all in every song. Give them a couple of months of gigging experience and these guys will be on fucking fire.

Take a bow gentlemen, you just made one more fan.

Comments

All replies to this article. Log in to post a reply.

On 12th September 2004 at 14:54 Dave LMS wrote...

The Forty5s - I get quite confused really when I do the listings... I presume there is no relation to either the "major" band The 45s or other Leeds band The Lost 45s?