Friday 27 April 2012

WGW Day 2: The Bands

Just some minor dressing up tonight as we rushed out to The Spa.


LAST JULY
We arrived to find that Last July had gone on early which was a BIG disappointment. They were supposed to start at 21:20 and we arrived at 21:15. To make matters worse there was a huge technical failure which meant that their set was cut short at that point. We only saw one song, having missed 5 or 6 which I was gutted about as they were a band I really wanted to see. The good news was that it was announced that they would be added to the bill of the November 2012 event.


THE SPIRITUAL BAT
Really good band, guitar based trad goth style. The singer had an amazing voice. She reminded me a lot of Siouxsie. Big credit goes to the guitarist who composed all the songs and played all the instruments on the backing tracks. Well received, atmospheric songs.


UGLY BUGGS
Jay (Gene Loves Jezebel) Aston's new troupe. An interesting delivery to say the least. It was a bit like a poor man's Gene Loves Jezebel. There was a promise of something in a lot of the songs that never really appeared. A tad disappointing knowing what Jay can really deliver. There were times when it felt like he was taking the piss (or was pissed) as it seemed more of an indulgence rather than something long term. Maybe it was first gig jitters but they certainly lacked something. A tad random and Toni said that jazz goth doesn't really work! Maybe it was a condition of the GLJ booking that Ugly Buggs were allowed to play but they shouldn't have been this high on the bill for a first gig!


Sadly there were more people on the foyer than there were watching and front of stage was deserted.

It was also a sad indictment of this Friday night at WGW that the only person on the dance floor was a girl who was about 6 or 7. Not sure if it was the economic climate or the many line up changes that kept people away but it was certainly a disappointing turn out compared with past events and even the usually crowded foyer was light on people.


IN THE NURSERY
With an atmospheric entrance In The Nursery took control of the stage and the audience and got the night back on track. Wonderful rhythms and haunting melodies steeped with feeling and a dark edge had feet tapping and the crowd swaying nicely. The visual element of drummers made them great to watch. One was standing with toms, snare and cymbals and the other with timps and bass drums. The shared vocals between keyboard/bass player, timp player and main vocalist added lots of twists and variety too. A great band to watch and listen to. A few songs even got frighteningly close to EBM which was great to hear and encouraging for future bookings perhaps? Sorry martin oldgoth but you know it's true LOL! What a fantastic way to end the night!

One major gripe this year is the increased use of lighting behind the band which made taking pictures quite difficult and sometimes the band were just flooded out and hard to see.

Overall though it was a good opening night and we are really looking forward to tomorrow!



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