I had not heard any of these bands before the day of the gig, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It had been billed as an indie gig, and I'm not a huge fan of most of the indie that's around at the moment.
As the first band, Warning?!-Achtung?! hit the stage there was a very light-hearted atmosphere in the not-very-full Mixing Tin. Their first song was a disappointing start, a formulaic grrunngy rock tune that saw the band simply going through the motions. The sound was very loose, not the snappy sound that this sort of rock music needs. I was immediately doubtful about the impending evening. However, as their set progressed, they played some songs which were packed with cool riffs, and the singer seemed very comfortable on stage, happily bantering away to a completely non-responsive audience. Their overall sound needs a lot of improvement to do justice to some pretty good ideas. Think Danko Jones at best, or a weak Velvet Underground in the more dodgy moments. The set closed with another weak song (I think they might need to do some reorganising of their set), a forgettable experience all in all.
Next up were Unexploded Shells. Now, I certainly am not a fan of the new revival of Clash-esque indie punk, so I'll try to stay objective. Their first few songs were clearly meant to be catchy poppy numbers, but I didn't find them catchy enough. I found little to remember from their set, apart from some exceptional lead guitar work which made the whole thing more listenable for me. The band were very tight, but I found that I forgot the songs as soon as they had finished, except for one psychedelic Pink Floyd-influenced tune with some awesome slide guitar on it.
In the break before the third band, Jinzena, I was beginning to dread the rest of the night. What have I agreed to? I thought. However, as soon as they started playing it was clear that there was going to be something here for the less indie-inclined amongst us. About 30 seconds into the first song I felt like I just had to dance. They played some awesome 'dancefunkskaindie' with an incredibly stylish sound. The songs had depth and intelligence, and an incredibly obvious sense of fun. The vocals were slightly quirky in the crazier moments, but overall I thought they were the most impressive band of the night. The set weaved through a number of styles, at times sounding almost like Capdown, then linking parts of songs with some free-form psychedelic noise and soloing. A thoroughly entertaining performance, thanks guys!
Finally, Tigerbomb took to the stage. The venue had emptied slightly since Jinzena finished, but there was definitely a slight buzz around the remaining audience. My first thought on hearing Tigerbomb was how incredibly tight they were. The first song seemed to speed up and slow down very suddenly, but in a structured way. They definitely have an extremely unique sound. It sounds like they took a bit of 80s ska or reggae, then threw in a measure of Queens of the Stone Age and put it to an indie soundtrack. Unfortunately, they were very restrained from the start, and they sometimes seemed like they wanted to just let go and go crazy, but something just wouldn't let them. They should probably mix it up a bit on stage, their songs all seemed a bit too similar, but there were some crackers in there. It's really not my thing, but I have to admit they had a very good sound. I'm not sure what it was, but for me there was just something missing, that they needed to push themselves from quite good to excellent.
A good night, all in all, there was probably something for everyone there, but it could have far better.
Gig Date: Monday, 27th February 2006 | 408 page views.
