Breed 77 were first up tonight, and it was a bit of an eye opener really. The single, The Message (which was reviewed in YAZ 5), indicated a band with a bit of a Pantera fixation, at least in the vocals. Live however, they show that there's a bit more to them than that, especially in Paul's vocals. Switching from the Anselmo like hollering, he manages to flick into more subtle moments. The music is there as well, so for these lug holes, it all bodes well for the future. And eventually they even managed to get 4 people down the front dancing, which seemed to please them no end, We were begining to have bad feelings about Derby, but it only takes 4 to bring this place down. An interview followed, and will be in a future YAZ. For now, check them out live, or get hold of The Message single.

Vine. Or was it Thine. Was never sure. Anyway, the striking thing in a way, was how much I've changed. This was METAL. But I don't really know what type of metal, I guess I've fallen out of touch so much. Doomy, to a degree, with lots of fluid guitar runs going through it. The vocals had that feel, where it's sung in a deep voice, but clean. Occasional switches to more raspy vocals. There was a time where I may have known how to describe it. Not now. And the other interesting thing was how much chance the new metal fans gave it. Everyone in the Korn, Coal Chamber, Deftones, Fear Factory shirts didn't even bother to come in to watch them. Sure, things aren't everyones bag of fun, BUT, people could at least give it a listen. It wasn't my thing, but I listened. It's one of these idiosyncracies at the moment which bothers me. How open minded people really are. It's why it crops up a lot in interviews in YAZ. Tonight was a prime example, though to be fair, they were probably on the wrong bill.

And so to Misery Loves Co. Where were people? Another of the things that baffles me, how such dedicated fans manage to fail in such vast numbers to turn up to anything that's not flavour of the week. It was a decent crowd, but it's a small venue and it wasn't packed. Now, I'm not the biggest Misery fan by any stretch, still haven't got the second album, but they deserved better.

Still, they put on a good gig. A healthy mix of stuff from the two albums, Prove You Wrong, Lick Your Boots, Not Like Us etc. And it worked a lot better for me than when I saw them on the NextGen tour in January. The new track, No Exit, sounded especially good. Just a further progression I think along the Misery sound, it seems to bode well for the next album.If you were a Misery fan, I think probably you'd have loved this. But, where were they all?