CYNOSURE/ PHOENIX
14th June 2004
By Terry Bullen

The Atlantis Arena was fairly quiet again for the second week running, but hey Euro 2004 is now here! For the people that did turn up, a night of music awaited them from two different style bands.

Phoenix: The Jazz and Soul outfit Phoenix were first up and after their first round performance they needed to maintain that standard to ensure they have a fighting chance of progressing to the last 4. For me the band did maintain that standard and were very professional when a few sound hitches hampered their first song. Once these issues were sorted the band got in to their swing and reminded us all again of the fantastic twin female vocals and the truly delightful guitar playing from one of the best guitarists in this years competition.

I made a point in the first round that the keyboard was a little hard to distinguish at times, so it was nice to hear the keyboard player featured in the slow and soulful cover “Aint No Sunshine”. The other impressive thing tonight, was that the band never gave up on trying to get the small turn out of a crowd on the dance floor. This eventually paid off for them, as the crowds warmed to the band and danced on the floor for the second part of the set.

Phoenix added a new cover to their set “Love Will Keep Us Alive” by The Eagles, which slowed the tempo right down and brought a few young couples to the dance floor. The band delivered this song very well indeed and some strong vocals were mixed in with some fantastic solo work on the sax, by “the man in the shades”, Michael. The crowd really warmed to this number and towards the end of the song a bunch of them formed a circle in front of the stage, with the occasional flame appearing from a waved lighter.

This was another solid performance by this young and talented band and it's really good to see a band that enjoy what their playing so much. I can't help but picture this band performing on a large stage, in the sun, at one of the local open air jazz/folk festivals or even at the Halesworth annual music festival. After this round the competition goes straight down to 4 bands and it's getting to the point were most bands are playing faultless sets and pleasing the crowds. So the scoring areas like marketability may well start to come into play a bit more, which is were Phoenix may come unstuck and could find themselves just missing out on one of the final 4 slots.

Cynosure: Cynosure gave a tight and impressive set in the first round, which saw them make this stage of the competition. Unfortunatly tonight the band dropped below that standard and they didn't have the togetherness or timing that was prominent in their first round effort. The band were certainly relaxed but seemed more content to just have a good time and at times turning the set in to a bit of a jamming session rather than a tight, well rehearsed performance.

The band didn't have any negatives from the first round but did have some here, as stated above. This was a shame for me, as I was impressed by the band in the first round and felt that they would give us much of the same in this round.

Cynosure added a few new songs to their set, of which the best of these was the Jet cover “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”. This immediately struck a chord with the crowd and the dance floor quickly filled with music fans, as the violinist and sax player left their instruments on stage and jumped into the crowd to join in on the fun. The band tried to keep this sudden buzz going by following that song with “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic” by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The song started out well and was musically good but as the song progressed it turned in to another untidy finish.

Cynosures first round performance is what I will remember about this band and I hope that's what they normally give, as this second round effort was not to the level that I believe they can perform at consistently. As a result of tonights below standard performance, I think we will see Cynosure bowing out at this stage of the competition.

I would like to mention Dale and Suzi for yet again working their socks off on a trying evening. It's a hard job each week and when a big band rolls in, I guess it makes things even trickier. Well done!

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