Life is like a bowl of All-Bran - it's there every morning when you wake. I kept thinking this on the way to Maggie Mays (as the Patriots were needing reviewed), then I thought - what if you died then where does the All-Bran go? If you figure that one out, email me. But now to the important part - the review…
Kicking things off was a man by the name of Si James Thomas, formerly of the Black Arrows. Now, his set was good - all acoustic numbers - but he said something interesting during the set in that when he was with the Black Arrows he never sang which, to me, came as a real shock as the guy had a terrific voice. One of the best I've heard in recent times, in fact.
By the end of Si's set, a crowd had amassed and they were eagerly awaiting the next act. Step forward the War Club. I found them to be a solid bunch of performers with no real weaknesses. However, there weren't any obvious strengths either but they were a band who were good enough at what they do.
After they left stage, I found myself needing to move position due to the crowd almost blanketing the stage. So off I went on an expedition that even Indiana Jones would be proud of to find a new seat that I could see the stage from. I found it to the far left that was also next to two lovely ladies Fiona and Karen who knew Kenny (the guitarist) of the Patriots. Mission complete just in time for EH!
The Dundee four-piece had a big following and I'm certain most of the people were friends and family but, even so, it's still support, I suppose. They played songs such as "The Prostitute Song" and "Where You Gonna Sleep Tonight". The songs were good not great and, at times, the lead singer's commands to the crowd were cringeworthy as, by all accounts, he was talking to people he knew. Telling your 18 stone aunt with bingo wings to jump around isn't exactly rock 'n' roll.
The penultimate act of the night were Black Rats. Now, I reviewed a band a while back by the name of The Black Rat Death Squad who were terrible. I thought that it might be them without the death squad bit but luckily it wasn't. The band were a really good proper rock band and I suppose I could liken them to Led Zeppelin or Kasabian as they sounded like a mash-up of the two but they retained a sense of uniqueness as well. Their song "Dirty Little Girls" had a riff, though, which was an obvious rip from a Led Zeppelin classic. They were still good - they even blew an amp.
The final band of the night was The Patriots. Now there were some problems with equipment at the beginning which meant they had to cut some of their songs. This was unfortunate as I found them to be really good. The lead singer's voice seemed to anchor all the instruments together - something that rarely happens. Their first song was a cover of "Man in the Mirror" which was good however I thought their own material - such as "Cheap Wine" which had a great guitar riff - to be better. They had an overall good sound about them and the audience seemed to enjoy their set as much as I did.
So another night over and, in turn, so is another review. After discussing the show with everyone I had met, I undertook another more treacherous expedition - walking through Central station at midnight in an effort to get home.