First Motion / Seven Day Story
Week 1 - 17th February 2005
By Sharkey

Well, here it is again, another year comes round and another Battle of the Bands starts again, this time with several additions and changes. Before I go into the first nights review I thought now would be a good time to explain what’s different about this year:

• All new PA system, and frankly it’s quite amazing to look at sitting in the middle of the piazza bar taking up quite a bit of space. But is it worth forcing a few unfortunate bystanders to use their legs? I think it is, the sound quality was top performance, easily excelling all previous years.

• Prizes! Yes, and trying not to sound like an ITV commercial, you could win the chance for prizes each week. This week the prize was a little push scooter won by Battle of the bands own webmaster, Adam. We’re all hoping he is making good use of it…

• The cafeteria. This may not seem important to some, but has always been a much missed part of any gig. The ability to get food at the end of the night was a lifesaver for me. It’s open all night and serves good food and coffee (in large cups for us caffeine fiends).

• Mills Music stand. Yes one of the illustrious sponsors has a stall running at the back of the room selling guitars, strings, bags and other musical accessories (even glow sticks which quickly lit up the room). Don’t be put off by Simons friendly smile and nice attitude, it came to me as a surprise to find a shop owner who was helpful, friendly and actually knew what he was talking about.

Anyway, enough with my ranting propaganda, onto the bands.

First Motion- When they first got up on stage it was hard to determine what kind of music they would play. They all donned extremely spiked hair (with exception to the drummer) and strode up on stage with the typical four piece rock band setup (guitar, drums, bass and singer). When they started playing it became clear what kind of music they were playing, Punk.

They were very energetic whilst playing and their overall attitude reflected the type of songs they were playing. The singer had the right kind of stage attitude and knew how to deal with crowds (even if the crowds didn’t know how to deal with him). He projected the ‘In Your Face’ image, him nor the band cared what anyone thought, they were hear to play.

Fast and short was the theme for some of the early songs, putting a lot of effort and energy into their performance and were very competent players (although the bass players sound was much to be desired). At some points you could tell when the players were getting exhausted, but still they continued regardless to the amount of stamina they had left. They had a good political message in some of their lyrics (I couldn’t tell which were originals and which were covers, excuse my lack knowledge of punk music) and well shouted and sung by all members of the band.

There was a mix of covers and originals in their setlist and they seemed to move seamlessly between them, the songs not being too radically different from each other and keeping to the punk style. It was almost like a late 70’s “Sex Pistolish” kind of punk revival but with a few alternative scene twists in it.

The lead singer made quite a few attempts to get the crowd going with taunts and urging people to come to the “dance floor” (I hate calling it that). A few small moshers came on but didn’t stay for long. The crowd maybe too daunted by his attitude. About half-way through the set the singer started to bad mouth The Darkness

“They told me The Darkness played on this stage, fuck the darkness” he shouted to the crowds. Probably met with a mixed reaction between the Darkness lover and haters, if there were a crowd next to the stage, there probably would have been a riot. He was not afraid to push his audience. At one point, he left the stage and sung on the main floor, a much more personal move to attract the audience to them. It was a shame that no-one went out for them, they had such a good energy and drive behind their music that I thought someone would have gotten up.

Their final attempt to get a crowd response paid off well though. Enticing the crowd to yell “Oi Oi Oi” was well received by some, though the singer did sound a bit sarcastic at the time.

Overall though they did well, putting up with their own lack of stamina to give 100% into their performance.

“A very original and energetic band” – Shona, BOTB patron

“Very animated and connected with the audience, defiantly fun to watch” – Simon, Mills Music

Seven Day Story - Another four piece band with much the same setup as First Motion (except the lead singer also played guitar). The lead singer confidently and almost automatically talking to the crowd and giving a big praise for First Motion (good sportsmanship, another thing you sometimes don’t see between bands). This got a very good response from the crowd even as the singer said the classic lines “I can’t hear you, your going to have to shout louder than that”

The interesting thing about SDS was they used a wide range of genre’s in their music. Some of their music sounded was a cookbook of band styles. Three pounds of ground up Foo Fighters, marinated in Jimmy Eat World, sprinkled on a base of Mars Volta and adding a hint of Blink 182.

The songs were extremely competent and well played and also knew what they were doing all the way through and never seemed to make mistakes. Very professional attitude.

They were also very proficient at using harmonised vocals throughout a lot of there songs, and doing it well. I know personally how hard it is to play an instrument then try and sing a vocal in a major 3 rd above the lead singer, credit goes to them for that. Although at some points I feel they over-used the harmonies and didn’t concentrate on the lead singers own vocal abilities.

The singer himself was an excellent singer and very competent in any genre. He ranged from a Matt Bellamy distinct sound to screaming well too (and screaming can be done badly trust me). Like the previous band he put a lot of energy into his performance, especially when he did tracks where he didn’t play and sing. He even began to play games with the audience promising “a pen” for the first person who came and danced, only to find one young girl kept stealing the pen.

Some of the earlier songs they played seemed to range a bit too much into different styles, going from psychedelic arpeggio’s into a fully harmonised and (kick me for saying this) almost “Busted” sound in places, especially the chorus’s. Later on in their sets they stuck to the Alternative/Emo genre.

The guitarist, although very competent and able performer, didn’t seem to have the stage energy of the rest of the band (even the bass player with the misfits haircut was jumping around), occasionally turning his back on the crowd, which doesn’t purvey a good image. Although when he played the acoustic song with the singer put more energy into it and came through with a very sweet and emotional song.

At their final song people from the crowd came up and danced to them, even one of the band members from First Motion came into it and bounced around for them.

“Breathing new life into the alternative scene” – A girl whose name I forgot and number that I didn’t get.

Overall it’s a good start to the tournament. More people turning up than I’d expected and there was a good atmosphere to the place.

Next week, Faded Theory and Stone Idols.

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