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).

Bank Holiday with the Backfire boys

Captain Backfire played The Thack South Milford last Monday (5th May) at a fairly well attended gig. They played what seemed a tight Acoustic set consisting of mainly covers with a few of their own songs thrown in. The sounds levels of this part of the set were balanced but could have been louder as people could be heard talking over the band.
The second set they played was full band and didn’t seem to go so well. ‘How Much it Hurts’ seemed to be at a lower tempo to usual, and ‘Loose Change’ was so fast it lost its funk. The audience did seem to enjoy themselves however and joined in with the songs when required. Also forcing the band to play ‘Good Friday’ as they had decided to play it only on request, the singing as they returned for an encore planned only to contain a cover of Jemeriquies ‘Canned Heat’ did just that.
The band had a lot of energy and seemed up for the gig but just didn’t seem tight or well rehearsed, which after the performance of the week before was a disappointment.

Captain Backfire – Manchester Battle of the Bands Final Jabez Clegg 27/04/08

Although the band only finished fourth out of five this was one of the best shows I have ever seen them put on. Encouraged by the fans who had traveled to support them the band seemed to feed off the crowed and use the energy in the room to lift the performance to another level.
A well rehearsed set, starting with ‘Blue Room’ consisting of the usual numbers and ending with ‘I’ll Be Waiting’, sounded tight and all the band members were on top of their game. Everyone was giving it their all and it showed, Eddie and Chris in the rhythm section sounded as if they couldn’t have been blown apart by a nuclear bomb, the guitars were interchanging with the smoothness of silk, the solos really showing what Reece and Richard are capable of whilst fitting tastefully with the rest of the track, Greg on trumpet was on fire and especially picked out by the judges for praise. Singer Joe seemed to get some strange comments about his ‘lack of edge’ although its had to see how you can have ‘edge’ singing to the laid back style of music the band play. Personally I though his stage presence was dominating, it seemed as if the crowed was in the palm of his hand. His voice sounded as good as it ever has.
The crowd, having been told stop chanting the bands name in the bar downstairs, were in full voice chanting as the band took to the stage, singing and dancing throughout the set, and cheering the judges’ comments.
On the night I do think the best band (Leeds based funk band 16 Days) won and the level of competition was high, but it seemed a little strange that the other bands finished exactly in the order they played.
Check Captain Backfire out at The Thack South Milford on Bank Holiday Monday (5th May) and look out for videos of the Manchester performance appearing on youtube in the next few days.

The Manikees and Captain Backfire Rio’s Leeds 19th April 2008

Captain Backfire take to the stage and play a tight set with very little chatting between songs, except to dedicate each individually to their friend (and lead singer of Kinch) Chris who is in the audience. Looking relaxed and dancing slightly more then usual (this may have been because they were playing mainly to family and friends) they play all the usual numbers and new song ‘How Much It Hurts’, a video of which can be found bellow. As a warm up for Sundays Battle of the Bands Final this gig was sound and leaving the stage they seemed happy with the performance.
The Manikees then took to the stage and the crowed had still not increased. They played a solid upbeat set of inde-rock highlights of which included ‘Jenny’s Place’ and ‘She’s on the Dancefloor’. Their energy was outstanding considering the lack of audience and they just looked as if they were enjoying playing for themselves as much as for the crowed. I personally felt a little sorry for them, a good band that had traveled from Scotland to play to an empty room. Check out their myspace - www.myspace.com/themanikees.The sound engineer did a great job and the levels were spot on for both acts.

Captain Backfire – How Much It Hurts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfao-zm8gcQ

Good Friday with Hippy Van, Phish Tacko, and Captain Backfire at Bar Vida

Hippy Van open the evening with an extremely short set cut short due to technical difficulties (breaking their synth). The three songs they do play however sound fairly strong despite it being hard to tell weather the singer is singing or eating the microphone. Their only young and with a bit more experience (and luck) might turn out to be a decent listen.
Phish Tacko follow and the crowd starts to pick up as they cruse through a tight set made up of Indie covers and their own material, all of which is tight and well rehearsed. They know exactly where the other band members are going and move effortlessly through the songs whilst still giving enough to the crowd to get a reaction.
After a quick change around, not even enough time to buy a drink, Captain Backfire take to the stage. They kick off with the vocal intro to ‘Good Friday’, the crowd (mainly their friends) singing straight from the off, before launching into their ‘Aint No Sunshine/Jam’ intro and ‘Blue Room’. Its easy to see at this early stage the band are up for tonight and are feeding of the audience, the performance is at a level I haven’t seen from them for a long time. The John Mayor cover ‘Good Love’ followed with the audience joining in the choruses, and then straight into their latest song. This shows how far the band have come in the year they’ve been together, the music is tight and they play for the most part at least facing the audience, a massive achievement considering that this is the first time the whole band have played this together. Proceedings are then slowed briefly with ‘Adaptations’ which whilst slower doesn’t kill the atmosphere, whilst showing the writing skills of the band and lining them up for new cover (again unplayed as a whole band) J.K’s ‘Canned Heat’ this is again fairly tight and gets the crowd back to singing and dancing. Lead singer Joe then announces, ‘As it’s Good Friday… well go on then’, the band launch into the song of the same name and are rewarded with a small but highly energetic pit erupting in front of them. After prompting the first line they don’t need to or indeed bother to sing the choruses, they wouldn’t be heard for the audience singing back to them anyway. They end on ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ which again gets an excellent response singing and dancing from the audience. The last two songs being their best known gives the night ending it deserves. By the end of the song members of the audience are on stage congratulating the band.
The energy level kept up throughout the night is outstanding and its easy to see everyone has enjoyed themselves.
Well done to Joe and Ray who between them got an out standing sound from the skeleton of equipment available too them.
If you missed this you must be either deaf (in which case well let you off), or stupid.

Stiff Little Fingers - Leeds Met - 6.3.08

The opening notes to ‘Go For It’ ring out the crowd starts to sing along to this instrumental song and the last stragglers rush in from the bar. Minutes later Stiff Little Fingers take to the stageopening with ‘(It’s a) Long Way To Paradise (From Here)’ whilst at the front of the stage the crowd go wild, and continue to do so for the first three songs which are played without a break. The sound quality is unbelievable and the bands enthusiasm and energy is amazing, despite lead singer Jake Burns having turned 50 two weeks ago. This band have been going for 30 years and its obvious to see, they know the songs inside out and pick a set which includes all of the crowd pleasers and the songs they enjoy the most.
Part way through the set they pause for Jake to tell us about when The Specials used to play the next song ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’ and people used to tell them it was ‘great they played that Stiff Little Fingers cover’ (it was The Specials originally for those who don’t know). The crowd then breaks down into a strange mixture of pogoing and skanking for different parts of the song, the band look as if they love it. ‘Barbed Wire Love’ also provides a great moment when the slow bridge of the song sees the crowd stop jumping around and raise their lighters in the air and start waving their arms, moving seamlessly to going wild when the song kicks back in again.
The first part of the set comes to a close and the band leaves the stage to cries of ‘Oh lay, Oh lay, Oh lay, Fingers, Fingers’. They return and engage in the mammoth ‘Johnny Was’ with the whole room singing.Having now seen this band for the last three years running its obvious why they are still going and that they are most defiantly ‘Still Burning’!