After a wild ride with Norwich’s one way system and a frantic rush to find a sandwich, we finally arrived down at Norwich's Ferry Boat Inn for a night of musical revelry. The wonderfully named Giant Robot And The City Of Tokyo kicked off events with some fuzzed-out guitar work, very reminiscent of the early '90s band Pavement. Although rather than be buried under their musical influences, they had their own sense of catchy melody and tuneful, whooping vocals that set them apart from anything they may have drawn from. Being the first band, there were not (yet) a lot of people for them to play to, but those who was there seemed to be enthusiastic about the talented band’s performance. They’re definitely a band to watch out for – it’s an experience to hear all that loud, hugely distorted guitar sound and crashing drums and still be able to pick up a twinkling melody and some happy, bouncy vocals. The Lost Levels By the time the second band took to the stage, the place was starting to get a lot busier. The Lost Levels have improved a lot since I last saw them in the same venue supporting 65daysofstatic, and their sound is much less of a gimmick than it used to be.  | | The Giant Robots And The City Of Tokyo |
I say gimmick, because the band consist of a guitarist, drummer, bassist... and also a man with a Legend Of Zelda hat wielding four, count ‘em, four keyboards. And these aren’t your regular keyboards. These aren’t your Keane piano sounds or your Jamie Cullum’s - these are keyboards with vigour. Each one has a different sound, and the main keyboard has a sound perhaps best described as 'computer game music' – the kind of lo-fi sound you used to get from the first Nintendo or your Gameboy, or your Rolf Harris-branded Stylophone, if you’re old enough to remember them. But as I said, this is no longer a gimmick to the sound, and The Lost Levels are fused with layers of pianos, simple guitar melodies and a backbone of bass that brings it all together for some innovative sugary pop, which reminded me a little of The Unicorns. With all this going on, the visual experience is excellent too, and the crowd really got into the vocal-swapping and the between song banter. Hooker Green #1 Now, Hooker Green #1 were the band I came to see and, although they are not headlining, their show is crammed with Scottish enthusiasm. The audience gets some added excitement from the inclusion of the Saxophone player, with the coloured lights glinting off the surface of the brass instrument in a truly mesmerising way.  | | Lost Levels |
The band also have a drum and a symbol at the front of the stage, and throughout the set and the multi-layered, jazz-tinged indie songs, the guitarists and sax player take it in turns to beat that drum for everything it’s worth. With the proper drummer at the back forcing out ‘And You Will Know Us By The Trail OF Dead’ style rhythmic, marching, aggressive beats, the second kit at the front gets the adrenaline pumping as your heart tries to match the frantic pounding. This pulsating rhythm comes to a head in the last song, when both the front and back drum kits are being played, as well as one guitarist picking up an extra pair of sticks and playing the unused drums of the full kit at the back – for three layers of percussion. You can see the remaining bass, guitarist and sax player getting into it, as each pushes themselves to the boundaries of their jazz-infused indie. The Captain After this performance I was a happy man, glad to have been impressed by three bands in one night. But little did I know of what was to come. “The Captain,” it said on the flyer, “combining stunning guitar work and ace vocals with electronic backing.” To be honest, this describes a vast majority of the bands circulating the UK scene, and so I didn’t expect too much. On strolls The Captain. One guy starts to tune up his guitar and check the levels, and I’m waiting for the other performers to arrive. None came. Then it slowly dawned on me that this wasn’t Captain, it was The Captain.  | | Hooker Green #1 |
My suspicions are confirmed when the skinny, timid looking man announces, (surprisingly forcefully, considering his apparent shyness) "Hi, I’m The Captain." From this sentence it is clear that, yes, he is The Captain, and no-one is going to argue with him when he says it with such gusto and confidence. Indeed, no-one disagrees with him, and instead the crowd let up a mighty roar, sensing that something special is going to happen. The Captain presses a button on a flashing electronic device next to him, and pre-programmed beats start to pulse though the room. Then he starts to play, and the energy and force coming from one man is astounding. The Captain knows how to handle his guitar and, while he is technically competent and has obviously learned guitar theory, the amount of creativity and imagination in his guitar work comes through more than anything else in his playing. The vocals are desperately beautiful without shouting or whining, and you get the feeling that it's all heartfelt. He really does care about his vocals, thrashing that guitar, and keeping in time with those electronic noises. After the first song, the crowd erupts into applause and an animal-like roar. While they have been fairly into the other bands, The Captain has struck a chord with everyone in the room, just through the energy with which he is playing. His remaining songs, he says, are all new, but that doesn’t stop the enthusiasm from both him and the crowd. All the songs have something unique about them while still staying in the same one-man band format, and this is something worthy of praise. There is no doubt that The Captain will go far, even if it is just by himself. The bands played at the Ferry Boat Inn, Norwich, on Thursday 28 July 2005. | 
