Bad timing on my behalf meant I nearly missed this one, but it seems that doing 90mph between Nottingham and Derby gets you there pretty quick. Though it's not big, not clever, and not to be seen by the Police.
So, within about 5 minutes of me getting there, the band were taking to the stage. Opening with a new track, Old Man, that is quite possibly even better than the material on current mini-album, Bone Dry, it shows the quality of the band. Songs. At the moment they've got a shitload of them. It draws polite applause from the crowd that has gathered. No mean feat when you consider that the rest of the bill was described as Folk and Indie! The familiarity of Deal With It follows, along with Nightmare, and a version of Target that sounds as if it's had a few new time changes added to it, that makes it even better than the original.
By this point, the applause between songs is increasing, as well it might, and if anything it maybe makes them more confident. The vocals on Dynamo from Zoe seem even more powerful and confident than the album version as the hook of It's your, it's your lucky day, I let you go away" is belted out. "We've got an album coming out on March 22" is the announcement. So get ready to go down to your friendly neighbourhood record store and order a copy, cos it's ace (to borrow a seriously bad cliche.)
"This is a Depeche Mode song, and it's the first time we've played it" introduces Hear The Silence (I think). I've don't know the original to say whether it's a faithful cover or not, but the applause at the end seems to confirm what I thought, which was "that sounds good." Another new track, Long Time shows the simplicity yet diversity of the songs and makes me want them to get back in the studio and get some more stuff recorded. There has to be a full blown album of this material somewhere down the line soon. There's a bunch of bands from various places on the planet that if they could actually write songs this good would have the press falling over themselves even more than they already do.
Running out of time means final track Shifter is switched to something different, that I didn't recognise. Another new one maybe?
They're doing a few gigs at the moment, and possibly some dates with Kill II This when they return from the Entombed tour. Go and see them. Visit the website. Get in touch with them via the label, cos they're one of the best bands in the UK.
Ok, so after that, was a band called Superfly (I think.) Introduced as "needing no introduction" was actually a blatant lie for me, but they look like they're playing to friends. Came across as a REM, Pearl Jam vocals, Saw Doctors that sort of stuff thing. Which isn't really me. And so, I must bear the wrath of the Dave outburst reserved for people who don't bother watching the bands and spend time at the bar instead.
Support the bands, don't just fuck off. Give them a listen. Whinge whinge whinge, moan moan. Wankers.
Yeah, I know. Guilty as charged (looks sheepish). Silk came on and I didn't see a single song. Well, like I said, it was a strange bill, where there was only one band I was interested in seeing.