Gigbeth. Friday

Sadly Friday I was only able to catch a few bands, the first being Shoot Panda Liars Club, a band so bland that they haven’t even bothered with a website, tight and professional guitar music with a little swagger but so dull my note book is just a list of other bands that they sound like. No character, unlike The Getaways who had so much character they could have appeared in a Dickens novel. In the intimate back room of the Sanctuary, these balls out, sweat covered scamps were so charmingly roguish that I wanted to reach forward and scruff their hair. Next Jess James, a tiny wisp of a girl bravely took to the stage and performed the usual sensitive singer/songwriter material which no one paid a blind bit of notice because unfortunately the lyrics, which I have no doubt she agonized hours over, were rendered incomprehensible by the acoustics of the room. By then the momentum of the gig had been killed, but that didn’t stop The JD from doing their hardest to RAWK the dwindling crowd, overlong in places and struggling not to sound like a sixth-form band that got lucky, I did enjoy the use of guitar solos something I personally miss from contemporary music.