|
|
| A decent
turnout for a Monday night in Bar XS, and everyone was well up for it.
The gig kicked off a little later than planned due to PA problems and waiting for late comers to arrive. |
|
|
The fantastically named Kangaroo Sandwich took to the stage first on Monday, with Tom element on vocals and Dave Young on the guitar. Dave and Tom were in a band together for two years and were gigging regularly throughout that time. This, however, was there fist gig in 12 months and they were a little nervy as a result of it. |
| They soon got into the swing of it though.
their set consisted of covers ranging from Badly Drawn Boy to The Verve. Theirs was a very mellow set that gradually eased the crowd into the evening, building towards a fantastic rendition of the White Stripes "Hotel Yorba". A brilliant ending to a good set hampered slightly by nerves. |
|
|
Oh, and Tom, concentrate on the gig and not the football on the
tellies!
A repeat performance from Kangaroo Sandwich is scheduled for August at The Attic on Oxford Road. Watch the gigs page for further details. |
| After a short break, minusoneraver took
to the stage for the first time at XS.
minusoneraver opened their set with the up tempo number "Deadbeat Town". Written by Tracey Browne, this folk rock song is the ideal opener for the band. Performed as tightly as eve. Second on the set was the Dido cover "All You Want". minusoneraver did their usual rocky reworking of the normally sedate number much to the delight of the audience at XS. |
|
|
Rob took to centre stage next for his
self penned song "Angel Cry", and performed the twisted love
story with suitable emotion. The timing was a bit off on the old
guitar but nothing that a bit more stage time won't fix. And
Trace's harmonies were bang on the money, after she remebered to turn
the mic on that is! Go Your Own Way is the latest addition to the minusoneraver set list and the band were clearly apprehensive about performing it. The song built nicely towards a "jump around" finale, only hampered slightly by a few mistakes on the bass. Dark Therapy was the penultimate track in the first half on Monday and the Echobelly track got the best reception it has got yet.
|
| The first half of the set ended with a
rocked up cover of the popular Alanis Morissette song
"Ironic". This is also a new addition to the
set. Trace's vocals were superb on this song and the high octane
cymbal crashing chorus breathed new life into a somewhat overplayed
tune.
After the break minusoneraver burst back onto the stage with the storming "Weak" by Skunk Anansie. Swiftly followed by the minusoneraver tune "Hangin' For Fame". This song was originally written for minusoneraver by former band member Iain Hart. Hangin's chilled out lows and pounding crescendos make this a dynamically brilliant tune and a belter live. |
|
|
The Radiohead anthem Creep was next up and got a warm reception. Another new song followed the melancholic Creep, the new age punk classic "She" by Green Day. Lee was struggling physically by the speed of this track so it was lucky for him that it was only two and half minutes long! He managed to keep up though and the song was a high energy success. The Ani Defranco track "Untouchable Face" was the next song in the set. And it wasn't performed as tightly as usual. It got a great reception though but one to work on. |
| Linger was the penultimate track in
Monday's set. minusoneraver faithfully recreated the pop hit and
was the Landlady's track of the night.
The set finished on the minusoneraver track "Into the sun" and as usual, got by far the best response.
That is until the crowd insisted on minusoneraver doing an encore! Trouble is, they had run out of material. Non the less, the belted out "Deadbeat Town" again to a roaring reception and a true rock and roll finish. |
|
|
minusoneraver's live performances
seem to be going from strength to strength. Look out |
|
|
|
|
|
|
