First band tonight are GF93 all the way from the heartland of rock'n'roll, Italy. I've only had the album a few days, so just a couple of quick listens. One impression with me is Coal Chamber. And as the first couple of tracks unravel, that thought stays with me. But fortunately as the set progresses, they manage to stamp more of their own identity on to things, and those thoughts are almost completely banquished. There's a darker moodier kind of feel going on, and one of the guitarists is playing a guitar that is so death metal that he should be playing, er, death metal. There's some good stuff going on, which given a few more listens I suspect will grow more and more. Probably this one came round a little too soon to be able to make a real impression.
So finally I get to see Snub. It's been a long time. For various reasons our paths have missed colliding in the past, but nows the time. A quick interview beforehand reveals that Choff has a bit of a sore throat, not that you'd notice it from the way he and the rest of the band perform. It's not the tightest set the world has ever seen, numberous technical problems see to that, including the microphone stand that does its best to annoy new guitarist Marcus and a broken bass string - how do they manage that. They're thick. The bass strings on my bass have been on for about 10 years now and still refuse to break, even when I want them to! Concentrating on the new album, Memories in Richter, which again I've only had a few days and a few listens to, it's nothing completely original, but they do their thing very well. Managing to engage the relatively sparse crowd with tales of wrong doings with donkeys on the beaches in Bournemouth it's aggressive and in your face but with a human touch. And Choff manages to get around quite well for a big man. In fact the stage is really too small to hold them. Mind you, I'm not at all sure what to say about the guitars both guitarists are playing. Satan and his twin. You know those flying Vs but where it's not quite symmetrical. Those types. Two of them ye gods. Ah yes, I think it was geezerMcwhatsit from Helloween used to play one of those!
Misery Loves Co have never really done it for me, and I've not heard their new stuff. As it turns out, the lift back home departs half way through the set, so yeah, I know, I walked out on them. Smack my wrists. But it seemed no great loss, and before I left the set seemed to go like this. Old stuff = fast and aggressive, big reaction. Followed by "this is a new slow one" which took on the Paradise Mode style of things. Nothing inherently wrong with that, it can be quite good, but it needs time to settle in, time which as I've never heard the tracks before, they don't get tonight. It's a poor turnout as well, something to do methinks with a complete and utter cock-up in the timing of the tour. Starting the day of album release, or a day later, with little press build up is not the way to get a big crowd. Even in this wonderfully appreciative of live music country of ours.