McLean's (The Pentre Club), Chemistry Lane, Pentre, Queensferry, CH5 2DA

Thursday 1st April 2010

Pictures by Holly Griffiths & Dave Mounter

Review from Richard Hibbert of Academy Images - additional photographs on: http://www.academyimages.co.uk/Blog/Blog.html

Battle of the Bands 2010 - Heat 5

In playing order

A Day of Origin

From North Wales, the quartet, A Day Of Origin - http://www.myspace.com/dayoforigin, Alex Davies - Vocals, Ash Lewis - Guitar/Vocals, Matthew Hoyle - Bass and Owen Twidale - Drums, opened proceedings tonight with five tracks, I Feel Like Mr Kipling (Exceedingly Good), Timeless Classics (*), Dreadnought, Absolute Travesty (*) & Tick, Tock, BOOM! (*) of their own composition making up their set.  An interesting routine, drums and bass lines quite superb, very solid and pronounced.  Ash's guitar work quite inspirational on occasions, with some nice riffs punctuating his performance.  Vocally his contribution was a perfect foil for Alex's 'scream' style of delivery.  A good set, well received and very well delivered.

I, Said the Spy

Second band - I Said The Spy - http://www.myspace.com/isaidthespy Phil - Bass/Vocals, Shaun - Guitar, Chris - Drums/Mackbook/synth, came in with six tracks - Blink And You'll Miss It, My Baby Blue Eyes, Welcome Home Straightcut, I Gotta' Feeling/Boom Boom Pow [Black Eyed Peas cover], Summer Is Over (*) and Party On Wayne (*) in what proved to be quite the best set I have seen them play.  I was not alone in this view as the Pentre crowd were also enthused by this performance, with the dance floor area completely packed by appreciative revellers throughout their performance.  The clever use of the ubiquitous Macbook added real depth to their sound, whilst bass, guitar and drums were each played and delivered with great skill and passion.  The Black Eyed Pea's cover was for me, the low point of the set, but this was recovered by their closing track as Ian Farr (Slightly Generic) crowd surfed in the spotlights.  A truly excellent set, well delivered, really good stage presence, instrumentally and vocally right out of the top drawer.  Well-done guys. (Website gives details of a very full itinerary if you fancy seeing them again).

The Issues - Heat Winner

The penultimate act was local quartet The Issues - http://www.myspace.com/theissuesjam. I say quartet, as since last I saw them, they have added a second guitarist to their line-up, as well as some new tracks.  So Jay Lloyd - Guitar, Mathew Cave - Bass, Kris Brown - Drums, and Chris Foulkes - Guitar, started into their five track routine with Lucy was a lie (**), Situation (**), Home (*) (**), Enter The Mirror (**) closing with their very good interpretation of the classic Johnny B Goode (**).   The addition of Chris on guitar has freed Jay up to indulge in some wonderful intricate solo riffs, highlighted on Situation.  The Hypnotic - Home - a real hands in the air anthem, was greeted with a crescendo, as their army of fans left no-one in any doubt as to who they had come to support. Enter the Mirror was the perfect vehicle for Kris to demonstrate his burgeoning talent, pulsating hypnotic beats moving the audience to sympathetic movement akin to the cave party scene from The Matrix trilogy.  An overall superb performance.  The improvements made since their last outing at Pentre is nothing short of remarkable - quite stunning - well done guys.

Kixxstart Kitty

Final act was the much anticipated appearance of Colwyn Bay's Kixxstart Kitty - http://www.myspace.com/kixxstartkitty with Zakky Storm - Voice/Screams, Karl Doobwah - Guitar/Voice, Kidd Wilks - Bass, and new boy Nay Trixx - Drums combined to deliver their usual full scale assault on the senses with six tracks -Psycho Babble Bullshit, Sikk Chikks (*), Pokerface (Lady Gaga), Audible Poison (*), (S)IN HER (*)  and Fight For Your Right (Beastie Boys) closing their set.  So with a new guitar for Karl and a new drummer for the band, Nathan, how would KKK fare tonight?  The answer, quite well, but, not quite up to their usual standards of excellence I fear.  Nathan seems to have fitted in really well, providing some exquisite beats throughout the set, bass and vocals - enthusiastic, and well delivered, with some sublime guitar riffs, particularly during (S)in Her, with a guitar solo to die for.  Their interpretation of Lady Gaga's Pokerface did not transfer into their style particularly well, I have heard many covers of this track and quite sadly, this was not one of the best.  In complete contrast however, their Beastie Boys track was superb, in my opinion better than the original. A really good performance, but one which did not show them off to their best advantage.

So, The Issues were quite deservedly the winners on the evening, really looking to see if they can maintain their meteoric performance through the semis and make it to the final.  On tonight's performance, I would be very surprised if they were not still there competing on the 4th of June.

(**) videos of live performance of track available on band's website

Audience