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The first band on the bill had the hard job of warming up the audience in anticipation for the following bands. Barney had been banging on about Ursa for a while. What a revelation! Hard core rock and minimal, shouty vocals grabbed our attention. Not unlike Geiger Counter in a lot of ways but on a different tilt. This is a band to check out again. Next up The Monsoon Bassoon. Best live band in Britain? Most genre defying? Of course they are! A couple of nice new tunes squeezed into the set, but the old favourite are still there scrambling your brain. Billy Mahonie are a bit of an enigma. On record they sound nice and soft, but the live experience is something else. The tunes are massively powerful and bring on a whole new dimension when played live. Tonight saw them more powerful than ever before, probably due to the fact that they have just come off a European tour, and coupled with Paul's (sound) excellent monitoring of the sound levels, the band had most of the audience captivated. At one point Gavin was so immersed in the playing that he stumbled backwards over a monitor while playing. He apologised for this after song - such polite boys! Howard managed to get drawn into some banter about Aldershot Football Club between two of the songs. He finished on a high with "I'm a Rochdale supporter, and it's not often we get to be condescending about another club". Game set and match! After the last tune the band went off momentarily, but such was the high of their performance they decided to come back on for another. As far as anyone can remember, this was the first time ever that a band had come back for an encore here. Gavin thanked the crowd, including "Rothko, Geiger Counter and the London math-rock posse". All in all another special night. Barney running around beaming like an idiot, (same as ever then), and the small crowd treated to some truly excellent music. Shame most of the youngsters were down the road at a Jam tribute band's gig - they don't know what they missed... fools! skippy Public service Promoter Barney has got it just about right, as usual; "this should be the best gig ever" is his boast. And, of course, he ain't far wrong. We all know about Billy Mahonie and La Bassoon, two amazing bands on pretty much top form. But Ursa arrive with zero reputation and leave having nailed more than several influential jaws to the floor. Within 2 bars of their first song, Kavus Bassoon is away with the math rock fairies, totally into their vaguely Geiger Counter-esque angular density. But you could throw so many names at this music and still not be close; maybe Refused or Breach or Mogwai or Fireside or even Cardiacs spring to mind. The band themselves simply admit to loving Shellac. This is dark, terse guitar violence, so wonderfully discordant, lurching from one wall of blackness to the next. Yet at its core is a fierce emotional power, characterized by strangely sparse riffs and lofty vocals. This contrast is what gives them their real enthralling presence; savage, bludgeoning grooves, falling away into a brooding (dis)quietness. As The Kids rapidly discover, you can't really dance to it. But as an intense listening experience, it is nothing short of brilliant. Steve The Monsoon Bassoon setlist: Leyline N16 / The Next Two Weeks / The King Of Evil / Fuck You Fuck Your Telescope / Wise Guy / Celestial Backlash / The Very best Of Badluck '97 / Spoils |