Crud World Domination Enterprises give you
VHS or BETA
Forward Russia
The Voices
Cardiff Barfly
Reviewed by Guy
Salvador
Its great having a Barfly local to where you live, every
night of the week you can guarantee that if you want to get out & watch a
couple of bands the Barfly will serve up exactly that. Whether you like what you see is obviously
more luck than judgement but, tonight I was feeling lucky….. Well, it would be lying to say that I had no
knowledge of any of the bands on tonight as I had reviewed openers “The Voices” a few month’s ago @ one of the Imoan
records nights @ the Toucan club, Cardiff & was looking forward to seeing
them again. Mainly due to the fact that
they had been very different to what is the norm with a huge effected dual
guitar sound with real retro electro accompaniment & very little vocals, in
fact the irony of the name does not get missed.
They have an album out in November this year on “My
Kung Fu”. The lady & two
fella’s again, delivered an interesting show tonight although different to the
first time I saw them, when they were blisteringly loud, they were very
quiet? Don’t really know why this was as
normally the Barfly serves up loud! The
performance is really just like watching a band in their rehearsal room rather
than a gig really, although I figure this is due to a lack of gig experience
more than anything & not a criticism.
I am sure with time they will evolve into something really good as there are definitely
some good ideas knocking around with the “Voices”
although at the moment the band are struggling just a tad to get it across,
definitely worth a look, I will again & look forward to the album. Second up were Leeds band “Forward Russia”.
These boys are one hell of a tight, well drilled unit! The singer worried me for a while as I
thought he was having an epileptic fit!
Fair play to the guy, he obviously feels a lot about what he is singing,
sometimes makes him look like Tenpole Tudor having an electric shock
though! Strangely, the songs are
monikered by just numbers & not names which is novel…. Very energetic, post punk, rock. Alright for me! I’m sure we’ll here more from
these fellas. Headliners tonight were
from the States, Kentucky’s, “VHS or BETA”
billed as the US’s answer to Daft Punk?
Ummmm, yes I could hear a bit of that there but as a comparison, not for
me. More like, & it seems to be the
way with a lot of the US bands at the moment, early Spandau Ballet, Duran
Duran, & others of that new romantic ilk.
Now, I didn’t really like much of that first time around but, the bands
nowadays are doing it a bit more hard hitting & also, to be honest can
probably deliver it a bit better, new technology obviously helping with this
one. They are a rock band who can funk,
or maybe a funk band that can rock? I’m
not really sure? Great front man,
apparently of Korean origin, who doesn’t know how old he is due to being
adopted into the States at a very young age, got to assume this was due to
tragic circumstances & a guess being made of how old he was! Good to see the guy coming out the other
end….. Great funk style bass playing
& overall a really good fun live band.
Unfortunately for them the band do not seem to transfer as well onto
their recorded work as I was disappointed after listening to their album but
live, I’d go to see them again tonight if they were playing!
All the best
Guy Salvador
www.southerndownrecords.co.uk
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