Bar gigs are always hit or miss. Varied audience, shitty sound quality and short sets give the bands a small window of opportunity to really rock the casbah. Box is the one of the best examples of a live venue that I've seen since I came to Glasgow. Here I saw more people watching the band on the closed circuit TVs than actually watching the live action on stage.
Self described post-indie rock band Must Be Something were up for the challenge as they continue to spread their name throughout the Glasgow scene. The beginning of the set was suspect with good music but the vocals just didn't quite fit. After the couple of lightweight songs that started the gig, the boys showed that they can swing from genre to genre as their sound hardened. Through the squeaks and shrieks of feedback, they spilt out "Resist" and "Chemical Life Support" - they definitely got my head nodding and my hands drumming on top of my pockets. The vocalist was able to do the whole yell/scream/sing thing like so many within this genre, only with this guy I could actually hear what he was saying so I knew what I was rocking out to. "First One to Go" was a good example and was definitely the best song they played and I even caught myself trying to sing along to the chorus, even though I clearly didn't know the lyrics.
The somewhat inattentive crowd gave plenty of applause when required but the woos only came from the table clearly full of the band's mates. All of which goes to show that repeated exposure to Must Be Something can definitely recruit a bigger fan base. At the end of the set I wished that they could have played longer and I could have rocked out harder. Throw these guys on a bigger stage in a bigger venue, add about three or four more pints through my liver, and a little more showmanship and you would have the recipe for a solid night out.