The Delaneys from Dunfermline started proceedings with a wickedly good song that came across as a chunkier Jam with slight ska influences in the rhythm dept and less overt sneer from the vocalist, ona strking song that ended with a great lead guitar-driven coda. The second tracvk featured solid staccato rhythms leading into a driving number with relaqtively hollered vocals, more Jam-esque vocals and a solid sea of surging guitar riffing - in fact, pretty similar to the first track. Then comes the third track and it's...well....similar to thre last two tracks - OK, so there's more of a hook to the guitar work initially, but thereafter, similar thing. So it was with the fourth track - and the fifth. The next track altho' I've got a feeling I lost count - started with a faster guitar intro and some wild riffing that led into a kind of driving anthem of a song with more venom than texture, something resembling a chorus and a very intense and rather good song, although still nothing overly memorable. The final track was similar to....well, you get my drift. Look, this is a good band - they can play, they have the energy of youth and the enthusiasm to go with it. It's all very well to sound the same if what you have is world beating, but this ain't it! More variation somewhere and things could start to get interesting.
Someone's Sons are from Glasgow. What worked so well here was that they started on a relatively dynamic note and as the et went on, they climbed higher and higher, to finish on a crescendo of indie power. The first song was energetic, fast, a bit View-esque with good strong vocal harmonies and a hook that's more like a verse, and vice-versa, probably more akin to Beatnic Prestige on steroids. The second track was a tad slower with effective choruses, still a rush of adrenaline and more dynamic with good harmonies. The third song surges into view as the vocals strive to fly, managing to work in the singalong hook, but the best thing was the intense guitar break at the end of the song. The fourth track in was the best so far, much more of an anthem styled song and sounding just more structured and thought out, while song 5 was faster with an urgent vocal, but the song itself proved to be one giant hook with the instrumental work from the band at a definite peak. Now over half way through, things began to spark - the next track was the best so far with more urgency overall on a more "deliberate" verse, with pretty urgent razor sharp singing. The next one was anothrer fast one with great choruses, hollered vocals and sounding like a more polite version of The View, but more a driving rocker of a track. The penultimate track had chiming guitars introducing it as beefy drums kicked in and a soaring vocal led a solid mid-paced anthem as the verses rose and fall on a seriously strong song. The final track they introduced as the single, and you could see why, as it stomped and stormed its way to a fitting end to the set.
I've seen The Trade before - just recently, in fact. But I wanted to try and look upon this set as though I was seeing them for the first time.....
The first track the band played opened with a huge, mighty bass line before a storming stomper of an opener began, sounding a bit like a slightly bluesier answer to Blur's killer "Song 2", with a powerful rasping vocal, a memorable vocal hook on one mean and nasty song, led by surging guitar riffing, pounding drums and that massive bass undercurrent, topped by one searing guitar break on a bluesy grunge trip. The band described the next track as "the nearest they get to an indie song". It opened with a chunky rhythm as a solid vocal heralded a song with a seriously strong swing to it as the lead guitar soars above a cascading wall of rhythm guitar and more rock solid bass work. Another driving, urgent and powerful bluesy vocal erupts as the pace accelerates and the band erupt even more, the whole band now going supernova into a mighty chorus underpinned by driving beats and strong riffs, as a sort of "Draymin-on-speed" climax ends a stunning song.
A swirling psychedelic guitar intro heralds thudding drums as a strong yearning vocal enters over fuzz guitar swirl, bass thunders underneath as trhe vocal commands your attention as the whole thing intensifies. Rhythm guitar adds extra density as the strong threatens to explode - then it explodes!! - but in a controlled way as the band starts an inexorable rise in a spiral of electricity and anthemic thunder as the vocalist delivers the song with imapssioned emotion - a nuclear explosion in a titanium coated bunker!! The song cycles to impressive heights, lengthy but never boring as this huge indie-rock sound engulfs the mesmerised listener. The band intrioduced the next track as one they have rarely played live before but did recny aqnd it worked, so the time was right to introduce it back into the set - and they weren't wrong!! Called "Stakeout", it opens with cascading bass runs, bursts of guitar, soaring high-end lead guitar and then the drums just thunder in as a solid vocal lets the song soar to perfection over the rolling thunder of band-driven proportions. A hook masquerades as a chorus while the verses morph into the hooks - all a bit akin to Naive American Indians discovering rock music!! The fifth track was described as a new track and right from the start it drops down several notches from what's gone before as bass and chiming, lone guitar heralds emotive vocal balladry invoking memories of great AOR anthems only this is firmly indie music. Then it stomps along, defying you not to clap along as the drums drive, a combination of body and head music at the same time. Amid bursts of fast lead guitar, the track lifts off as powerful drumming, surging rhythm guitar, monster bass work and a spiraling lead guitar all ignite, only for the verses to reappear as the intensity drops back. The singer then hammers down on a lone drum as the whole thing climaxes to perfection.
The next track is equally stunning and opens with a mighty blast delivered by a band on fire as a more mid-paced track burns with band-played density as the singer is showcased on a greater vocal range, the song veering from fast to mid-paced and back again on another propulsive rock solid rhythm section undercurrent. The lead track of their new EP, "Middleman", is up next, a fast-paced, heavy indie stormer of a track with a hollering vocal that just flies over the rifle-fire rhythm section as the guitars blaze and a fiery, powerful vocal delivers the lyrics, from the soaring angst of the verses to the staccato power of the chorus. With a red hot lead guitar in the middle above the driving rhythms and then back to the song, it's a killer blow on a set that's already got you jaw-dropped with amazement. The 8th track in is a really fast stomper of a number, yet the most commercial sounding track you've heard so far, proving that this band can come up with killer singles as well as album tracks. What you'd really call an indie song, it flies along with a repeated chorus giving it commercial appeal as a lead guitar breaks puts it into orbit, too. "The Dealer" is even more commercial sounding with two really strong vocal hooks and one mighty chorus as the band does a "Red Arrows flypast" at breakneck speed, the strength of the rhythmic drive topped with this mighty bluesy holler of a vocal, on a track that has you leaping about with reckelss abandon. The final song is a massive blast as the guitar takes off, the rhythm guitar strengthens it all as the bass churns, the drums pound and the band as a whole, erupts in a hail of forceful proportions, ending in a massive fire of indie-rock holocaust.
Straddling a line between indie, rock and pop, this was a set from a band on fire, didn't readily sound like anyone else, but the sound of a a band with a uniqque identity capable of crossing over to all fans of all genres, on a performance such as this. Fiery and furious, it was nevertheless, memorable and accessible, perhaps still needing THE killer single to top off what are a storming set of "album tracks".