Reviews

Battle of the Bands is an annual event organised by The Greenman Mcc and Discharge Fanzine.

Held at The Bowl, it gives local bands a chance to compete and "battle" for that all important title! 2006 was slightly different with the addition of the acoustic stage, which added "more variety" according to Lloyd from Discharge Fanzine.

I arrived in time to have a quick word with Lloyd before he kick-started the music and asked him why Battle of the Bands was important to have each year?

"It’s a good event to showcase local music, old and new, and the competition is always fun."

The music shortly followed, first of with Left In The Dark.

Left In The Dark are a young new band on the local scene, and have thrown themselves in at the deep end at Battle of the Bands '06! The fact that they are young shows; I'm not sure if its nerves or lack of rehearsal. They had attracted a small audience which at certain points during the performance responded to the music.

The musicians themselves are not bad and show potential, the singer gives his all and shows lots of charisma, however the lack of experience shows and unfortunately overshadows their performance.

Next up was Avoid Bright Lights. Consisting of well-known faces in the local scene; however this is the band's first performance. They opened with a loud, repetitive intro which captured the audience and the venue quickly fills.

Singer Jack Crisp of The Bake

The band are aggressive and in-your-face. To begin with the audience are transfixed on the band, but aren't moving. Their set consists of originals and covers. Their originals are dynamic and explosive, and for a first performance this is surprisingly tight. By the forth song the crowd are moshing. Overall the performance was powerful and energetic, which woke the venue and set high standard for the next band.

Tenacious D

Reznik followed. Reznik are fast, loud and extremely aggressive!! The band are a straight-up-no-messing punk band, in their performance I saw bold influences from bands such as Sick Of It All, Minor Threat, The Vandals and locally Limefire.

Reznik are not to be taken too seriously, with their tongue-in-cheek lyrics and singer Andy's comical outbursts in-between songs, which kept the audience's attention. Bassist Ryan and guitarist Andy resembled a comedy duo, which reminded me of the characteristics of Tenacious D! Another debut of the day, yet it was all too fast to grasp!

After Reznik I was left gobsmacked! Luckily for me Poor Attempt were on next. This was their second performance as a band; however the members consisted of Rhys Kirby and Stu of Goldfish Don’t Bounce and Jamie Wickenden of Better Late Than Never.

They played covers of pop-punk classics such as Blink-182 and also pop-punky originals. Rhys stepped down from his usual role as singer and Stu stepped up, his voice was friendly, fruity and welcomed you in to listen, which made a nice change after Reznik!

Brassiness

Padre Pio assembled on stage looking somewhat anxious. I was rather curious to see the band as I had not seen them play before. They consisted of three members, one being the sax player from Thee Jenerators. Padre Pio were sassy, funky and melodic all in one package!

I was reminded of local band The Bensons and UK act Toupe for their brassiness. They had attracted the biggest crowd response so far, with people throwing their bodies vigorously in front of the stage.

The singer/bassist swapped to the sax for a couple of songs, which added a jazz-esque taste to the funk and his scream was controlled and manageable. The walking bass line and tasty guitar licks had the audience captivated. They were the strongest band up until that point; however The Bake were about to grace the stage.

The crowd respond to the music

Power tools

The Bake arrived on stage dressed for the occasion ... in drag! They were the most anticipated band of the line-up and they did not disappoint. Launching straight into their first song, singer Jack Crisp managed to knock the mic stand off the stage and rip his ladies nightgown!

Their set consisted or covers and originals. The band were tight and energetic to say the least, they certainly maintained the electric atmosphere Padre Pio had made.

Covers like Primus’s Jerry was a Race Car Driver proved to be popular with the crowd, as they responded by dancing hysterically! The Bowl was now full. A Bad Brains cover and originals like Grundle Master portray the band's diversity in music genre and their talent as potential songwriters.

This was proved by the quality of performance, with incidents such as the guitarist John McCarthy using a power tool to act as a plectrum, which not only gave a fantastic sound effect but also a fascinating visual effect! To top of their flawless performance the crowd begged for an encore, which the band responded to with a cover of Sublime’s Santeria, the Bowl sang along which concluded the day perfectly!

Result

The music was now over, however the battle wasn’t! The votes were in and counted, it was time for the results!

3rd place: Poor Attempt
2nd place: Reznik
1st place: The Bake

It was a well-earned win for The Bake, who proved to be every inch of the performers they are!