Battle of the Bands - Heat 3
Dubbed the best BoB night yet, Heat Three soared beyond my expectations.
Porcelain Flamingo opened the gig and set the standard with their charismatic set that showcased their musical talents. They incorporated flute and funky soprano vocal solos into a comic set led by front man Mark Perkins, whose unusual voice and enthusiasm shone through. A well deserved victory, they were closely followed in 2nd place by Magicians Ghetto, a dub reggae band who brought to the mix more instruments than all the other bands combined. This included a melodica and a bowed saw, alongside trombone, saxaphone and sparky vocals; their style, which references Bedouin Soundclash and Cat Empire, was fresh and quirky.
Of the three subsequent bands Poh-nese stood out. There was no doubt that the audience loved their sound, which can best be described as noise rock, though the band claim to “avoid genres like they do Toffs”. They too provided something a little different from the standard four piece band; vocals and pre-recorded accompaniment were produced by one man and his laptop sat at the back of the stage, leaving the other three band members to enjoy the crowd’s attention. The rock set by The Attic Select was good, but they were let down by their cover of Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, which was all too similar to Muse’s version, but nowhere near as good. Surprisingly this band didn’t register in the top four and were overtaken by The Future Crew of the Pirate Ship Revenge, a band with a self-admittedly ridiculous name whose music had nothing to match up to the standard of their competitors. An average metal-tinged rock band, their teenage angst was more befitting a crowd of 15 year olds all vying to be part of ‘the scene’ than a university audience.
Leaving aside the come-down of the last set, this was an evening with a hugely diverse range of styles, and which, more importantly, produced two very strong contenders for the semi finals.
Shipping Crew of the Pirate Future! revenge.
Metal band? Only one of the songs was slightly metal - did your reporter actually listen to the whole set? If so they might want to look at the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music
and then check out the recording. Actually scratch that - they somehow made us sound even worse than we did live
A pirate fan
Wow, Olivia Haughton should be ashamed of, as a journalist, letting her musical biases influnce her writing. poor show indeed…
come on nouse, you can do better than that!