Original bands, original music from Lincoln & Beyond

Dahmer Plague + Esperandote + Skylight Square + Kiss Corona

Thursday, 29 July 2010

Battle of the Bands – Duke of Wellington.

6th February 2010

Review by Mister X

Upon my arrival at the Duke there was an unmistakeable air of excitement which could be put down to the excitable nature of the crowd or perhaps my entrance, but I would hazard a guess towards the former.

My initial impression was the age range of the crowd, a really reassuring thing to see that there were …… well technically they were supposed to be 18 weren’t they? Well ok, 18 year olds all the way up to the odd parent/older music lover with me perched comfortably in the middle somewhere. I’m not saying on which end.

The first band on were Dahmer Plague – first impressions were a band of young rockers with fresh faces, with a really good stage presence and fronted by Harry Potter’s evil twin. I always love seeing young bands play because I enjoy working out from where they draw their inspiration – sadly on this occasion I couldn’t pick out any element of music from what they played.

It was obvious that they are a relatively new band, and without the solid foundation provided by their drummer (mostly), I feel they would have struggled.

Every word that was screamed was pure noise, and there wasn’t the relief of a vocal chorus, or even pre or post chorus to break up the screamfest. This resulted in all their songs sounding very similar, although hilariously before one of the songs Potter announced that “This song is about the size 0 culture, because we like women with curves” – then launching into a piece comprising purely of screams, growls, and a banshee-esque caterwaul. In a candid conversation with another patron outside this was best summed up by the statement “They might have well named all the songs – ‘Noise number 1, noise number 2 etc”.

I don’t mean to sound intentionally negative, they had the difficult task of opening the night up and were only young guys – but sadly I must say the best thing about their set was the gratifyingly short nature of it.

Up next we have Esperandote – who filled the stage as a 5 piece and looked well at ease on the stage, fronted by a very cool, quirky looking girl called George.. they already had my attention..

Then they started playing… and from the 4th note the guitarist played they had me, the delicious scooped guitars, the solid basslines, the furiously-concentrated drummer (who was one of the best I’ve seen recently) and the light/dark contrast of the delicately sung vocals against the hardcore screams of the 2nd guitarist…. It worked.

The difference between a decent band and a great band is that a really great band should be an organism, they should gel and the music should flirt with you, entice you and keep you interested.

They delivered on every note and whilst their music was “heavy” it wasn’t oppressive, you could essentially take from it what you wanted – the songs were really well constructed. This band is like an AK47 that fires bullets made of the purest gossamer.

As far as I was concerned, the bar was set for me and would take some beating.

So following this tall order was Skylight Square, a 3 piece from Grimsby I do believe. They were already at a disadvantage as:

1. They were following a tight 5 piece

2. They were only a 3 piece

3. The only guitar was a telecaster.

Sadly this resulted in the general sound being quite thin, and for some bands that works fine but the genre of pop/rock punk (which this band sits very tightly inside) leaves little room for the delicacies that a sparse-sound would provide. There had been some mention of a band shake up and as far as I could make out their bassist had left last minute and what was the 2nd guitarist was filling in. So credit where it’s due.. you guys pulled it out of the bag but sadly that 4th member was needed to transport you from a survival to a victory.

You couldn’t help but draw the conclusion that every song sounded like it was off “Dookie” by Green Day and that probably isn’t the worst news in the world, but a bit more variety would have made the difference too.

On the whole though, I really feel for you guys as you played the best you could have on the night, and did I mention the drummer? Holy shit, she had some style. There wasn’t a beat out of place and there was a real rhythm there, not just patterns, kudos to you.

So on we move to the final band of the night, Kiss Corona. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve seen KC and I’ve had discussions about them at length with people before. The argument surrounding them is that are they/aren’t they a manufactured band representing everything that is bad in modern music? It’s easy to see why they draw the fire though, other bands play Squires and Encores then KC roll up with their signature Les Pauls which are unpacked from their own trailer alongside their promotional t-shirt stand as well as boxes of their professionally printed flyers.

They wear the same clothes practically gig in/gig out and the fans that follow them know all the words and sing along. I spied a secret moment, where the lead singer’s girlfriend touched his hair and he had to rectify it immediately.

Of course to be impartial I put these facts out of the way because this isn’t a place to criticise whether a band doing all they can to make a career out of what they love is “selling out” or “self-promoting” … there is an incredibly fine line but my opinion is, they are enterprising and getting their name out there however they can. Fair play to you.

So onto the show! KC have a brilliant habit of putting songs in my head that I sing for days/weeks afterwards… I don’t even want to be walking round my house saying “Chelsea, Chelsea…” or “Think you got it figured out”…. But I do. You raped my mind with your music, and I don’t really mind.

So they delivered the set that I think I knew they would, I’ve not seen them do a bad gig yet – but it has to be said this was probably the sloppiest I’ve seen. The harmonies were all over the place and the drummer dropped some sizable beats at least 3 very noticeable times. When they performed the *shudder* 5ive cover, the singer forgot the words.. fair enough.. but the bassist who was about to harmonise carried on and hearing it just on its own was just awful.. maybe it was a bad gig or maybe you need to have a long hard think about the harmonies because on the night they really weren’t working for you guys.

But on the whole, yeah it was a fairly solid performance which makes the order of the winners in my book:

1. Esperandote
2. Kiss Corona
3.Skylight Square
4. Dahmer Plague

Band Websites:

Dahmer Plague
Esperandote
Kiss Corona
Skylight Square

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