Dr Octopus
Live at Royal Park Cellars on Friday, 4th May 2001
Brass Moustache - the first of two excellent bands at the Royal Park cellars, a band with a definite influence from the well esteemed 'Cake'. With their melodic, and funky blues rhythm guitar, very funky double bass and their clean and simple drums. This trio has some good potential for the future, bringing nice easy listening tunes. For this band to keep succeeding coordination with their play list is needed. The tunes need to be kept as lively as possible to keep the audiences interest. This was evident when they dived straight into slow movers after only three songs. Something to liven up their sound could also be essential such as trumpet, piano or even samples, as the simple sounds soon got tiresome if you weren't dancing. This is definitely a band to see live especially if you're up for a dance.
Dr Octopus - this band of the night totally blew me away with an amazingly dramatic intro. Imagine A Tribe Called Quest, Sublime, and The Specials all mixed into a fruitful medley, and you'll have something that resembles Dr Octopus. This well-forged six-piece was definitely the prize of the night. Incorporating a unique set of styles, including reggae, jazz, funk, ska, soul, and classical. With a choice of technically professional drums, excellent rhythm guitar, funky strong bass, lively and obviously classically trained keyboard, very jazzy trumpet played by the same person, a lively female singer, and to top a mixing desk, with the guy even taking to the double bass briefly. I was particularly impressed by the unique rendition of Claude Debussy's 'Clair De Lune'. This band never lost the audiences interest and kept them dancing right to the end.
With the crowd hot from the previous band this band gave a confident, professional performance. With an excellent stage performance, with contrasting styles but a general theme of fun and enjoyment. The only thing this band lacks is a singer with some powerful feeling to enrich the entire sound. This band if they play it right will go far, if they can get themselves in recording studio and get a single produced. A definite must see band. Enough said really.