And so it was in the Garden of Eden. The snake asked Eve if she would like a bite of a tempting shiny red apple. She replied “First things first Mr Snake, my name is Jen and not Eve. Secondly, you should take that apple, crush it and ferment it into cider for only then can we talk”. The snake, sensing he was seriously outgunned, crawled back under his rock. Now that we are talking about rock…
It’s a rock night at the Hard Rock Café and The Iqons were there to set the scene. Driven by a drummer determined to avoid any accusation of subtlety, this was the kind of band that you would think could escape the confines of Clydebank and make the ascent to better things. It helped that they had the kind of neat little pop songs that benefitted from the addition of muscular guitars but, in the final analysis, it was the combination of wholesome male and sweet female vocals that really ticked the music box.
The Mavis Project gained an advantage from being, in the most part anyway, older and wiser and consequently had no trouble recycling the riffs of yesteryear in a manner indicative of the utmost sincerity with the spirited vocals of Gemma McGinlay sitting perfectly on top of a set distinguished by coherence and consistency. They may have been following the path to the past but does that really matter when they are going in the right direction?
The Dirty Suits had a singer who looked like he should be fronting a band. A band with Oasis motivations at that. He looked like he could outdrink the band and the audience combined and, with no apparent effort, took that devil may care attitude as the impetus to make every song sound like it was born of one long Friday night. Raucous is as raucous does and make no mistake about that.
And so it was in the Hard Rock Café. Plenty of rock but no sign of snakes. Jen, it would seem, has things under control.