TURNSTONE / FENRIR
24th May 2004
By Terry Bullen

After 12 extremely good weeks the judges had the un-envious task of whittling the 24 bands down to 12. This year has seen an amazing standard throughout the competition and I respect every single one of the bands in the way they performed.

The first heat of the second round was a re-run of the Turnstone/Fenrir night from week 7. As posted on the message boards; the following reviews will be much shorter from now until finals night, when the full reviews will return.

FENRIR: Some people had doubts as to Fenrir getting through but on seeing the passion that the band have for their style of music, it left me in no doubt that they would be here and deservedly so.

Due to an idiot running on stage in the first round, we were unable to hear an uninterrupted version of the bands original “With Sword and Shield”. So this second round gave us the opportunity to hear it again and I have to say I was impressed with the song after hearing it in its entirety.

The band added a few new covers to their set for this round, of which the best was the Uriah Heep song “Easy Livin” which had people moving on the floor and was performed very well by the band. Fenrir also did a cover of “Don't Fear The Reaper” by the Blue Oyster Cult, which went down well with the crowds and was a well chosen song.

Fenrir were thriving on confidence tonight and this showed in their performance, as the whole band looked on their game. The only shame was that the vocalist had a few problems with his monitor in the second half of the set and struggled with the vocal, but this does happen, even at the highest level.

Will Fenrir get to the next stage (the final 6), I'm not sure to be honest. This is not because they didn't give it their all, as the certainly did, but the level is so high now that it really has become intense and I feel the band may bow out to stronger opposition at this stage. This wolf is hungry though and it will delight crowds on the local scene for many years to come.

TURNSTONE: I don't think it was a shock to anyone that Turnstone got through to this round, as their first round performance was pretty much faultless and the whole band were extremely professional. To my surprise though, the band unbelievable raised the level of their performance tonight and produced a blinding set which got everyone's attention and made it impossible to keep your body still.

I did comment in the first round that the band could have been a bit more diverse in their choice of covers and could have added a few more originals to their set. So I was glad to hear some more exceptional originals in their set and a nice mix of covers from three different bands.

For me the best of these newly added songs was yet another well sculptured original “Helpless” which underlined yet again the amazing musical and song writing talent within this band, not forgetting the remarkable vocal of Guy Nottage. Turnstone also threw into their set a cover that the crowds swallowed up with delight, as the band collectively produced a fantastic version of The Monkeys classic “I'm a Believer”

It's not a shock to see Turnstone in the second round and it won't be a shock to see them progress to the next stage. Turnstone are brilliant, professional, talented and they always send the crowds home on a high every time. For me Turnstone are definite finalists and have every chance of lifting the title.

This is the only review this week, as Janistalis is away on holiday for two weeks.

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