Unfortunately I missed Red Vex. Or whatever they're called. Sorry.
I can't make my mind up on this place. Well I can. It's a strangely misguiding place to see a gig. Because it's a club, the place is almost always healthily full for gigs, at least the ones that I see. The people are well into it, the poses fly, the strut is well and truly strutted. Yet go to another venue in town, or over to Derby, and will the crowds flock and follow? Will they fuck. It's all highly superficial. Take a good crowd here to be indicative of the real state of interest / apathy in the UK at your peril.
Fortunately for Charger it means a fair few people are here to see them do they're sludged up thing, and those people get off on it, and make the gig worthwhile for the band. I've only seen them once before, quite a while back, and this gig far far surpassed that. I've only heard the Fuzzbastard EP, and on CD they bore me. There's too much sludge and not enough individual moments that stand out and grab my attention - it's a problem for me in general with this style of music. Live it works better, it feels more upbeat, and maybe feeling the reverberations of the soundwaves on your body brings it more alive.
The same can be said of Raging Speedhorn. In truth, I'm not a big fan. Those moments don't stand out for me. Maybe if you listen to the CD enough it works, but there's nothing to encourage me to listen to the CD. The songs feel too much of the same, too much alike, not enough variety. The twin vocals are not different enough. Yet again, live it works better, and for their small, but probably growing following, all those points matter little and probably just mark me out for being the misguided wanker that I am. The set is made up of alot of the album, the opening track would you believe is my favourite of theirs, and I've forgotten the name of it. Duh. Someone shoot the fool. It's good to start with that cos it puts me in a joyous mood (well, more joyous than I was at paying £3.30 for a bottle of Newcastle Brown tonight. I really must learn that Rock City rip you off on this stuff and I should drink something else. Surprisingly enough, I remain sober this evening), but it's also bad cos the highlight is the start, and in my cynical mind it'll only get worse. There's also a few new tracks in there, don't seem on first hearing to deviate from the path, but that's probably what they're after. In all it's a victory for the band, but in this place, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. After all, in a couple of days time there'll be 2000 lifelong die hard Papa Roach fans upstairs cheering their heroes along. Which is more indicative of the REAL state of things in the UK isn't it.
You decide whether I'm being sarcastic or not.