Underground 12

29-09-05

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Musicians, eh? Give them a place to play and they turn up late. At the start of the evening, it was a toss up whether Dump (sino-punks) or Tommy Chong (boozy bruised blues) will arrive first. Marcus plays a short acoustic set to warm up the audience and steps down when Tommy walks in.

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Tommy Chung & All Blues Band, this power trio went straight into their first song featuring solos and some fast fluid fingerwork. All five songs were pretty continuous and I suspect some of them weren’t originals, although they were forgiven as there was lots of scorching speedy licks similar to “Ten Years After”.
More music and tour info found at Tommy’s website
Nick Lovatt
DUMP take the heavyosity stakes of the night – 5 guys in jeans and black tshirts shakily do some Green Day covers plus some originals with traces of “Black Sabbath” bass lines & “Type O Negative” goth gloom, also some nifty progr rock time changes & cool drumming. The choice of songs was down to the fact that the singer & 1 other DUMP member was missing and KK plus Seth from Hardpack stepped in as the show must go on.
Band info located here
Nick Lovatt

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The Train are a good 80’s powerpop with punk hints. I kept hearing bits of “The Chords” and “Fingerprints” along with the drive of “The Only Ones”. Keyboards reminiscent of “OMD” or “Inspiral Carpets”. Quirky slight falsetto vox by Egg is similar to Marc Almond (Soft Cell), some of the guitar seems inspired by Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen). One demented and inspired gruff vox by the drummer (a la Sid Vicious) and one world class sneer by Egg cemented it for me. I’ll be back for more.
Listen to The Train’s new song “Here Comes the Raz”:
high quality mp3 or download it!
Nick Lovatt

D-head! What a joy! They had everything going for them despite a style that’s all over the shop, starting with a superb shoegazing number then going on to the Cure-esque themes and even a bit of Cranberries thrown in (even though i personally don’t much like the latter influence). The female singer/keyboardist is among the best vocalists I’ve heard in a long time, and has a tremendous stage presence coupled with a knack for comedy that didn’t go unnoticed. Sorry I failed to catch her name, but she seems capable of genuine vocal overtures minus the often annoying OTT facial pyrotechnics, which is a blessing. where can i get their stuff?
Cerberus

© Copyright 2005 Photos by Chi and Yan – thank you ladies!!

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