Battle Of The Bands, pt. 1
Jan. 23rd, 2008 01:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shermaramaThat wasn't as much fun as I was hoping. There were eight bands, and though they all had something positive you could say about them, the general standard was pretty poor. Worst of all was the realisation that the carefully planned judging system, by far the most complicated I've ever encountered for this type of thing, had been doomed to failure from the start because the only neutral people left in the Live Music Society to do the judging were the ones not in bands, viz, the ones with cloth ears. They gave the terrible, terrible first band eight out of ten for musicianship, when every musician in the room spent the entire set wincing mightily at both guitars and the bass being horribly out of tune.
So anyway, Gabi Garbitt and the Bread Stealers were shit, and would be even if they could tune a guitar, and even though Ms. Garbitt looks just like Miss Of Arc, Bathroom Sally were quite smooth and very skilled but a bit overnice jazz-funk-lite with nothing to say, although the version of Teddy Bear's Picnic was quite amusing, and Dynamo George were all very well but we've got the Strokes already and we don't need another, and Black Sea made promising boingy noises and clearly had a sense of fun but all the songs plodded horribly around the rhythm for some reason, and Arts Factory were an all-girl band including the guitarist out of the Sleep Wells from last week and were certainly good at what they did, which was trying to build something angular and brooding out of bits of lightweight stuff but lightweight stuff of odd chords and harmonies, but I can't say as I liked them, and the Four Horsemen were a proper silly cod-metal band with daft outfits and covers of two-second Napalm Death songs although not really actually musically competent which spoilt things a bit, and Children of Mayhem were about as chaotic as a wet Sunday afternoon indoors with a book, although nice and vaguely competent with it, and I didn't even hang around for the Jamie West band becuase that was supposed to be being 'a bit blues, a bit rock' and I heard them soundcheck before the venue opened and so already knew they were boring blues-lite. And then I couldn't drink because of having to cycle home which didn't help with the enjoyment, I suspect. The one in a fortnight's time will be much better, I think, but I'm not certain of being able to make it, on account of coming home from a conference in Bradford that day.
So anyway, Gabi Garbitt and the Bread Stealers were shit, and would be even if they could tune a guitar, and even though Ms. Garbitt looks just like Miss Of Arc, Bathroom Sally were quite smooth and very skilled but a bit overnice jazz-funk-lite with nothing to say, although the version of Teddy Bear's Picnic was quite amusing, and Dynamo George were all very well but we've got the Strokes already and we don't need another, and Black Sea made promising boingy noises and clearly had a sense of fun but all the songs plodded horribly around the rhythm for some reason, and Arts Factory were an all-girl band including the guitarist out of the Sleep Wells from last week and were certainly good at what they did, which was trying to build something angular and brooding out of bits of lightweight stuff but lightweight stuff of odd chords and harmonies, but I can't say as I liked them, and the Four Horsemen were a proper silly cod-metal band with daft outfits and covers of two-second Napalm Death songs although not really actually musically competent which spoilt things a bit, and Children of Mayhem were about as chaotic as a wet Sunday afternoon indoors with a book, although nice and vaguely competent with it, and I didn't even hang around for the Jamie West band becuase that was supposed to be being 'a bit blues, a bit rock' and I heard them soundcheck before the venue opened and so already knew they were boring blues-lite. And then I couldn't drink because of having to cycle home which didn't help with the enjoyment, I suspect. The one in a fortnight's time will be much better, I think, but I'm not certain of being able to make it, on account of coming home from a conference in Bradford that day.