My mission, given to me by Cddkmusik, was to get myself to the Joiners Arms on the 21st November to check out Sonic Underground, should I chose to accept it. The message then self- destructed (well Dave in Wales put the phone down and probably did something bonkers!). Anyway, the big day came and I jumped into the Reviewmobile (or as most people say, I got on the bus!) and went into town.

I have to admit that I wasn't in too much of an optimistic mood. After all, I reasoned with myself, who's going to want to go out on a cold Sunday night. I expected there to be a crowd made up of myself and the various bands' girlfriends and that would be about it. How wrong was I. I was pleasantly surprised that The Joiners seemed reasonably full. I got myself a drink and had a quick chat with Isaac behind the bar. I then had a quick wander around the venue.


THE SONIC UNDERGROUND

Sonic Underground were first up. They got on to the stage while the backing tracks started and launched into their first track of the night, Intro. The first thing I noticed was the fact that they seemed to care about their image. Eddie Richards, the main vocalist and guitarist kind of looked like a cross between a young David Essex and Dylan Moran from the comedy Black Books - very striking - and I found his vocal style very easy to listen to. To start with, the sound was a little on the fuzzy side, but it did improve quickly. Without a moment to draw breath the band went straight into Echoes, a funky bass driven track that reminded me of Green Day on a very good day. I really liked the song She (also known as Coda) which had a fantastic Jesus Jones style riff in it. My favourite track that they played was a song called 7th State which was a sort of Pop/Rock number in the vain of the sort of thing that Ash are currently going with. Lead guitarist, Rich Morrow took vocals on Self. His vocal style was more American and heavier sounding than that of Eddie's and I felt that it made a really good contrast. I could tell that Rich had been to see Motorhead on Friday (he was wearing theT-shirt - ha,ha,ha!). Carl Pritchard's bass playing really drove 'Ver Sonic's' songs and the rhythm section both programmed and manually provided by the expert hands and feet of Tim Guille kept my head nodding in appreciation. The last song was called Carl's Song (a provisional title methinks!) and turned out to be a right stomper with some great guitar moments. I liked the chorus which was a little disjointed in the vocal - the sort of thing that Gary Numan does but without the heavy synths. I have to say that I witnessed the whole performance from the back of The Venue which was actually quite a good thing to do as I noticed that Sonic Underground were very well received by the crowd. A band well worth watching out for.


THE VERA CRUZ

After all that, I didn't think that The Verra Cruz were going to be up to much. Although, I was there to see the opening band, I thought I might as well do a little review of the other two bands. How wrong I was! A grungy three piece, like Nirvana with urgency and a wah-wah pedal. I apologise that I do not know too much about them (their website gave no clues as it was not up and running properly when I checked it out), but I have to say that I like the intenseness of the set. The song Liar started out as a lighters in the air job but that didn't last too long and went straight into a whole heap of rowdiness. The next track, of which I'm afraid I didn't catch the title of, featured the most amazing steel guitar playing that I have ever witnessed. After all steel guitar is rarely played on all out Rock tracks and an all out Rock track is what it was being played on. The Verra Cruz finished on a track called Strange Fruit For The Hungry which contained an anti war rant and ended with a half baked chucking of instruments. This was probably to demonstrate how intense they were but to my mind it appeared a little embarrassing. A shame really, as everything up until then had kept me very entertained.


X IS LOADED

The headline act, X is Loaded, were and still are to the best of my knowledge a four piece from Bath consisting of Jake Robertson on vocals and guitar, Martino on guitar, Al Ex Cole on bass and Jamie O' Gorman on drums. A slightly gothy type of Rock Music - they reminded me a bit of Lostprophets and having seen them live I would go so far as to say that X is Loaded are the better of the two bands. Dr Mick assured me that the bassist was in fact 'the nuts' and after all I bow down to his knowledge when it comes to bass playing. I thought that Jake had a very strong voice and I'm sure he won't thank me for this, had Boyband good looks. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to hear the names of tracks. All I know is that their new single rocks and would go down very well in the household of my mate Paul and during one song Jake got off the stage and stood in front of me and two girls (to be fair I think it was for the girls benefit) for a guitar solo a la Justin Hawkins. I actually caught the name of the last song - Raw Nerve - the title track of their new CD (available at all good record stores and some rubbish ones as well!) which ended with a guitar bashing the cymbals and eventually being chucked on the floor.

During the in between band bit I was pleased to bump into Jamie Careless and Dr Mick (and his fantastic psychopath stare!) from Careless. They both looked well and seemed very enthusiastic about the musical projects that they are currently pursuing - watch this space for no doubt I will review any fruits of their labours.

All in all, an enjoyable night out. If any of these bands are in your area, I would definitely advise that you could do a lot worse than check them out (listening to puerile nonsense like Blue is definitely a lot worse!). It is rare to go out and see three bands and enjoy all of them. To be honest you could have put any of these bands on in any order and it would still have been an excellent night. So I raise my glass to all of them back in my secret Headquarters. Until my next adventure.

Ric Mansell

Sorted


Check Out The Band The Sonic Underground Here