It's taken me 'til March to get my first gig of the year under my belt, and at eight quid, this seemed too good to miss. And if value for money is a good indicator of a good gig, this was it. 3 bands for your cash.
First up were Johnny Panic, a London punk-pop band with a host of good - if formulaic - tunes. They were followed by a 9 piece outfit who's name sadly I did not catch, but who were sort of meatloaf meets the darkness, covering jamiriqai, doing the blues brothers. Crazy stuff, 4 different vocalists - one wanna be robbie williams (and destined to be a star) and a great female singer among them. Need to find out who they were.
And Powder. what can you say? Ninette doing he ditsy blonde routine; Phil with his mad spiky hair; a monster on stilts (suddenly teenage Iron Maiden gigs came flooding back to me); Dance routines with 2 look-a-likes (apparently not uncommon for their to be 4 on stage in some Powder gigs - and it seems we missed out on the pole dancing routine this time too); a skipping display - the likes of which you've never seen (certainly not in the middle of a Rock gig, at least) ; a flip chart to sing along to 'Go'; and goodies galore thrown to the audience. This was fun! You could argue that Powder's bubble gum rock needs these touches as many of the tunes are not good enough for the band to carry it off on music alone, but that would probably be unfair on the band. Whilst you could not argue that some of their material could be stronger, there is no denying the pop brilliance of current single 'Up Here', 'Go' and a couple of other tunes. I can certainly see why they have gone down a storm on the LA club circuit. When Robbie Williams sings " Let me Entertain You", I can only think he must have been referring to Powder. This was the bands first uk visit, I doubt it will be their last. I had a good happy feeling all over on leaving the venue, and let's be honest you can't ask much more than that. One thing's for certain, I'll be there again next time around.
First up were Johnny Panic, a London punk-pop band with a host of good - if formulaic - tunes. They were followed by a 9 piece outfit who's name sadly I did not catch, but who were sort of meatloaf meets the darkness, covering jamiriqai, doing the blues brothers. Crazy stuff, 4 different vocalists - one wanna be robbie williams (and destined to be a star) and a great female singer among them. Need to find out who they were.
And Powder. what can you say? Ninette doing he ditsy blonde routine; Phil with his mad spiky hair; a monster on stilts (suddenly teenage Iron Maiden gigs came flooding back to me); Dance routines with 2 look-a-likes (apparently not uncommon for their to be 4 on stage in some Powder gigs - and it seems we missed out on the pole dancing routine this time too); a skipping display - the likes of which you've never seen (certainly not in the middle of a Rock gig, at least) ; a flip chart to sing along to 'Go'; and goodies galore thrown to the audience. This was fun! You could argue that Powder's bubble gum rock needs these touches as many of the tunes are not good enough for the band to carry it off on music alone, but that would probably be unfair on the band. Whilst you could not argue that some of their material could be stronger, there is no denying the pop brilliance of current single 'Up Here', 'Go' and a couple of other tunes. I can certainly see why they have gone down a storm on the LA club circuit. When Robbie Williams sings " Let me Entertain You", I can only think he must have been referring to Powder. This was the bands first uk visit, I doubt it will be their last. I had a good happy feeling all over on leaving the venue, and let's be honest you can't ask much more than that. One thing's for certain, I'll be there again next time around.
Comments