Crud World Domination Enterprises give you

Queen Adreena
Infrasound
Ariel X

The Coal Exchange, Cardiff,

14/10/05

Reviewed by Guy Salvador,

This was nice, the Coal Exchange, my favourite Cardiff venue & for those who have never been it’s worth a visit. Sat right in the centre of the now, very well designed & developed docks area, the Coal Exchange is as it’s name implies is one of the original building’s where, all the coal business was coordinated that gave Cardiff & the South Wales valleys their industrial heritage & wealth. It is beautifully built with old local hardwood clad walls giving it a totally different feel & sound to most other venues. With not more than a couple of hundred people in tonight, it makes it great for us to be able to get to the bar, see the show etc. First up tonight were “Ariel X”, who have just released their debut album, “Bi Polar”. Great looking, energetic, guitar band, fronted by “Ben John” with his & the bands charismatic performance these boys will do well. Musically, like I said, they are a melodic, although noisy, guitar band that went down well with the sparse early audience here at the Coal Exchange. Next up were “Infrasound”. Something of a strange band to be on this bill as they definitely didn’t fit with the “Queen Adreena” audience. A good band all the same & another one from the, what seems’ to be the never-ending Leeds production line at the moment. Reminded me of a sort of “Oasis” or maybe “Embrace” type band, who played their stuff in good spirit even though generally people were disinterested in what they were doing, unfortunately for them in this gig & I would imagine on the rest of this tour they are just to boring to look at for this type of audience, who are looking for something much more artistic, androgynous, & punk rock than this! They get all these three & more with “Queen Adreena”. With singer “Katie- Jane Garside” they have a real strong front woman who, transforms from a small fragile girl into some sort of crazed mad-woman, using her stage prop chair to emphasise this & then back to the fragile girl in the twinkling of an eye. Her writhing, screaming performance is incredibly captivating & alongside her a great rhythm section & with the androgyny of guitarist “Crispin Grey”, who looks almost plastic in his Bowie type make up & robotic movement, they make a fantastic spectacle. Song wise, it is difficult to describe as they are not really musical in a traditional sense & use their own particular type of noise to emphasise their visuals more than the other way around, which is unusual in itself. They have some memorable noises such as opener “Kitty Collar Tight”, “Pretty Like Drugs” & “Razorblade Sky” & from the new “Butcher & the Butterfly” album, “Medicine Jar & “FM Doll”. Part of the attraction of what “Queen Adreena” do is the rawness that they allow in their work, no attempt being made to sheen it over to make it commercial, it is “straight form the bottle” so to speak. Second time I have seen them & again, mucho enjoyed. Will look forward to seeing Katie & the boys & her chair again soon.

All the best

Guy Salvador

www.southerndownrecords.co.uk

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