Reviews

I arrived at the Golden Lion tonight hoping for a night spanning musical genres from the old school punk stylings of Spat to the brutal southern metal-core of Iron Cobra, and in one of these at least I was not disappointed.

As ever Spat proved themselves to be one of the few bands in Guernsey still flying the flag for something resembling the punk rock that originated in the squats of London in the mid 1970's.

James Burton of Spat.

The bands set tonight didn't start off great as first their bass guitar cable went leaving them bass-less for their first few tracks and then singer/guitarist Jack's guitar cable kept falling out of its socket.

Once these problems were remedied however Spat kicked into a high gear and didn't let up.

As ever their sound was a chaotic mess of distorted noise at times and loose yet precise guitar and bass work at others, but on top of this Spat tonight seemed to have something of their old energy back which had been lacking at their more recent shows.

Running through every single one of their original songs in their set and a few covers Spat’' punky intensity remains something to behold, especially in the vocal performance of Jack Sunderland. Several of their original songs match this intensity perfectly, especially long standing numbers such as 'Jerks at Work'.

Spat.

In the rest of the set there were times when their songs would merge together, but this seems to be more due to their intensity, speed and the manner in which the band often play without breaks, than because the songs actually sound the same.

Tonight, while once again not the best performance I have seen Spat give, did show an upward turn in their performance which hopefully will continue.

Up next Iron Cobra took to the stage, promising a high energy blast of groove filled southern metal and the bands first track with new guitarist Corey Rive didn't disappoint.

Iron Cobra.

However this is all what got to hear of the Cobra tonight as the landlord of the pub decided this wasn't what he wanted in his establishment on a Friday night and frustrated many of those in attendance by pulling the plug on the band and turning up the juke box.

Unsurprisingly I left the Golden Lion feeling somewhat let down and with the question my mind of "why book a band to play and then stop them after one song?", but that, I suppose, is the venue owners prerogative.

Judging by Iron Cobra's attitude though this won't knock them too far off track as they head toward the release of their debut EP later in the year.