Captain Backfire – Bar Vida Selby Friday 17/10/08

The first band I saw this evening, arriving late, were The Highs. A band whom are friends with the Backfire boys, but I have not seen before. They were, from what I saw at least, a fairly standard sounding rock group, but a good one. They payed a high (no pun intended) energy set of songs and were very tight, professional, and most importantly entertaining. The original songs I didn’t know but the writing sounded strong and the band were obviously enjoying themselves as much as the crowd were enjoying the performance.
Captain Backfire were tonight playing to a packed Bar Vida, and this seemed to lift their performance. A few of their friends were also present, getting involved in singing and clapping along, which helped lift the rest of the crowd even more.
The band themselves played well and sounded tight, if you didn’t know they had not played together for at lest two moths before this gig, you would not have guessed. They played there usual set but with some songs given refreshing facelifts in their last rehearsals before they headed back to their various universities. On stage they worked well together and didn’t appear to have the usual problem of finding places to stand. Richard and Reece interchanging in the guitar parts sounded great and helps with the various feels of the songs, Richard having a cool controlled style and Reece being more lose and impromptu. Eddie and Chris, on drums and bass respectively, were tight and helped drive the songs forward with a kick. Joe on vocals was up to his usual high standards, whilst Greg helped mix things up with some fantastic trumpet playing. The whole band were however let down by the sound system, probably only usually used for dance style music, which struggled to cope with the high volume songs and was inadequate on the slower songs when the vocals are supposed to stand out.
The crowd however seemed to enjoy the whole thing and cheered the band back for an on-core of ‘Good Friday’ which they didn’t want to play but as Joe said, “For the Tradition.”
Check them out here

Goldblade - Rio's - Leeds - 17.10.08

Goldblade took to the stage opening with ‘Jukebox Generation’ and playing loud fast and with an amazing amount of energy. They Started as they meant to go on! The who set must have been audiable downstairs with the crowd singing every line with lead singer John Robb and dancing to every beat. The second song ‘Strictly Hardcore’ was greeted with an outburst of ‘Hardcore Dancing’ from a few members at the front of the stage stopping the pit, but only for that one song. On stage the band were tight and perfectly in time even whe various members of the crowd had hold of the mic singing the lead vocals. ‘Riot. Riot. Riot’ saw the female contingent of the audience invited to take to the stage and join in. The ‘Riot’ sign was also present, after a short stoppage to retrieve it from underneath the drum riser. The band ended the set with ‘Fighting in the Dancehalls’ and to the casual observer the mass of people at the front of the stage may have looked like a fight, but the band played on regardless, John Robb jumped into the crowed and the band ended with the same energy and commitment they started with.
If you live in the Leeds or York area and didn’t see them check them out at Fibbers, York this Thursday (23/10/08).