Rough Trade unsigned bands night at The Brighton Coalition
A review of the first Rough Trade unsigned bands night at The Brighton Coalition, on Weds March 26th 2008. Four bands played - Droptear Modelmaker, The Defenders, Storm Engine and Rob The Rich. Read on to see what I thought of each band and the night in general.
-The Defenders onstage
Droptear Modelmaker
This band opened, and were by far the most innovative and interesting of the night. They are a five piece, and include a trumpet at the forefront of the mix which is rather unusual. Sounding a little like Jaga Jazzist and Groove Armada but with a stronger guitar sound coming through on some of the tracks, a little more like Mogwai. Moments of excellence, and upon learning they usually have a singer, I be seeing them again.
4/5
myspace.com/droptearmodelmaker
The Defenders
Next up we had 60’s retro band The Defenders, a four piece (3 guitarists and an incredibly young looking drummer). They sound a little like The Coral with 2 singers singing together, but most of their influences are the old regulars - The Clash, The Beatles and the Kinks were all apparent. All well and good, until during the track Rumplestiltskin they turned into Ocean Colour Scene. This is simple pub rock, a covers band who write their own songs.
2/5
Storm Engine
From one covers band to another. This time the genre is 80’s/90’s grunge. Each song picks their influence, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and does nothing with it but replicate. However, the fact not many people are copying this kind of music these days went in their favour, and they sounded quite refreshing. Also the bands only been around 4 months, and these are good songs, just incredibly derivative. The finale was ridiculous though, a classic rock ending with everyone getting an introduction and a solo. Still good fun, and full marks to the drummer who crosses Slash with Kiss.
3/5
Rob the Rich
The headline act are very simply yet another indie band. Thats new indie, The Kooks, Babyshambles, Fratellis et al. Yes they have catchy songs and were certainly as good if not better than the aforementioned bands, but its time to move on people! They don’t leave much more to say really, its OK, if you like that sort of music you’ll get a great gig at a cheap price. I’ve had enough of all this though. If your a good musician, why not try something new. Of all the bands tonight though, these are probably most likely to get somewhere.
3/5
The night overall
As local band nights go, this was pretty good. All the bands sounded a little different to each other and Droptear Modelmaker were truly interesting. The venue has recently been redeveloped, it used to be The Beach, and with its exposed Arches and mirrors its a superb place to see bands, the kind of venue you normally only find in Europe. If your after a night of quality bands, for just £4 or even less if your N.U.S or BIMM, this night is well worth a look.
Rough Trade Presents…unsigned bands night is on every Weds night at The Brighton Coalition, down on the seafront, between Digital and The Fortune of War.
Yo, was just browsing google, thought i’d search my band and see what came up and lo and behold I ended up here
In response to your review I like some of what you wrote, however I disagree with the ‘covers band’ comment. None of us listen to any of the bands you compared us to (bar the chilli’s since you cant seem to get away from that sort of thing) so I’m glad you’ve found some common ground to label our style but we’re not copycats. I urge you to come down to a future gig and give us a second glance/review. Changes have been made and upon a 2nd listen i’m sure you’d find us more interesting/different this time around.
Cheers for the review anyway,
Ryan - SE x