Reviews

After some hasty reorganising following an on the day venue change from the St Margaret's Lodge to the L'Ancresse Bay Hotel, An Evening With… Third Time Lucky, It Still Stands and What's Up With Dave? was ready to go and many seemed happy with the change thanks to the better quality of sound generally produced in the larger space at the north of the island.

First up on stage were new comers What's Up With Dave? (who emphasised that their name ended in a question mark), who tonight were making only their second public appearance.

What's Up With Dave?

Mixing the pop rock of bands like the Foo Fighters with the style of pop punk of bands like Sum 41, What's Up With Dave? combined original material and covers to keep the already large crowd dancing throughout.

Half way through their set the band's drummer and vocalist swapped places and it was then that the energy really picked up with the crowd starting a sporadic and largely friendly mosh.

While they still came across as something of a 'school band', which is where they formed, for only a second outing What's Up With Dave? showed great stage presence. With some more experience this could see them do well, and if the reaction they got from tonight's young audience is anything to go by they could become exceptionally popular.

It Still Stands were the second of tonight's bands and once again, after some gentle encouragement, they had a large audience standing up against the stage for their high energy emo-pop.

Matt of It Still Stands.

Another band who combine covers and original tunes It Still Stands seemed to know just when to use a popular cover to keep the crowd interested and this culminated in their unique, and surprisingly successful, cover of Paramore's 'Misery Business'.

This cover, as well as several other of their songs, did a good job of further raising the energy in the room and got more of the audience dancing and increased the moshing to a surprising degree considering the generally upbeat nature of the music.

The only problem I found with It Still Stands tonight is that their music does at times sound very generic for the style they choose. However, as the band play this genre so well it does not seem to be much of an issue for them and with a few killer originals they could become a real highlight on the local scene.

Danny of Third Time Lucky.

Finally tonight pop-rockers Third Time Lucky took to the stage for a special appearance and from the start they had the crowd in the palm of their hands.

Third Time Lucky have that rare ability to wrap up songs of angst and heart break, which could easily become depressing themes, in tunes so upbeat you can do nothing but dance to them, so that's exactly what the audience did.

From the off the area in front of the stage was a chaotic mass of bodies all dancing, moshing and otherwise moving to the music. This chaos elevated throughout the set until several members of the crowd got up on stage to avoid the crush just before a full scale stage invasion, encouraged by the band, got underway.

Danny amongst the stage invasion.

From then on it was mayhem all the way as the band played among the crowd and set closer 'Forever And A Day' was finished up with two of What's Up With Dave?'s vocalists standing in for Danny Pheonix who was dancing with the crowd.

While Third Time Lucky's performance tonight may not have been as technically tight as they are able, it more than made up for this with its energy and the band's unique charisma, which has proven it can carry them through almost any occurrence and could lead them on to great things.