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LUKES WHISK/ BOTTOM DRAW
31st May 2004
By Terry Bullen
The second week of the second round and the Atlantis Arena was packed out with the usual crowds and a few holiday makers to boot. It couldn't have been a better night for two of the largest and crowd pleasing bands of this years competition, to take to the stage.
LUKES WHISK:Lukes Whisk were another band who I guess didn't give the judges a difficult decision in sending through, as they enthralled the crowds and performed brilliantly in the first round. This second round showing saw the return of the bands vocalist, who was absent from the first round. He had a great voice and worked well with his bass/vocalist counterpart to deliver some solid vocals and some good harmonies throughout the set.
The band performed brilliantly in the first round and didn't really have any negatives about them. So this performance was much of the same, with the added bonus of the second vocal, which gave the band an extra dimension
Lukes Whisk included 4 new songs in their second set, of which 3 of them were originals, which highlighted yet again the depth of song writing talent behind this band. The best of these new songs was an original “Ska Circus” which saw the saxophone player make his way to the front to lead the vocal on this song. The song changed styles throughout from Ska through to Hip-Hop and this fine mix really got the crowds going. The new cover was the Less Than Jake song “Gainsville” which contained a great joint vocal and some extravagant trumpet playing, as both trumpeters crossed arms to play each others instrument.
Lukes Whisk performed magnificently yet again and with the newly added originals and the return of their main vocalist, this band should breeze through to the next stage of this years competition and could even make the final three.
BOTTOM DRAW:Bottom Draw got to this second stage on merit, with a great mix of crowd pleasing songs and musical talent in abundance. Their second round set started off a bit slow with a number that would have been better further down the set list “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Toploader. This opening was soon forgotten though as the band went on to perform another stunning set and kept to the level that they showed in the first round.
The only negative that I pulled out of this bands first round performance was the Britney Spears song “Toxic” which I said took the gloss of an otherwise brilliantly executed set. So it was good to see that the band had dropped this slightly cheesy number and had added 4 new covers to their second round set.
The best of these 4 new covers was the Oasis song “Digsy's Diner” and “Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry. The Oasis cover contained some great work on the keyboards and a good vocal by the front man and the Eagle Eye Cherry number had the crowds jumping with joy, as the guitarist delivered in style.
The amazing thing about Bottom Draw is the phenomenal musical talent within the band, as every member gets involved vocally and each member seems able to play 2-3 instruments whenever needed. Cutting the 24 bands down to 12 was hard enough, so cutting the 12 to 6 is going to be near on impossible for the judges and Bottom Draw haven't done the judges any favours by putting in another great performance to push for that final group of 6 bands.
This is the only review this week, as Janistalis is away on holiday for two weeks.
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