Baby Tiger Night: 28th April Chiasma/Debaser/Dead Fly Buchowski/8 Lives Left Another night down at the Bongo Club for another Baby Tiger bandfest. I've been asked to review tonight's proceedings, as a gigging Edinburgh musician myself I respect the fact that these guys have made it from the rehearsal room to the live stage with original material. Lets see what they've got... First band up is '8 Lives Left' (good name), they start right on time & the first song up is 'Crazy' a great, catchy rhythmic acoustic number, poppy & accessible a bit like that band Dodgy. Next, their front man swaps to electric rhythm & the band play a song that's a bit Undertones in feel, poppy punk and it feels good. There's not a great deal of interaction between the band members, the front man carrying the band in front & glancing around willing his band-mates to move a bit more. This is a young band & the singer has some presence and sings well, his full vocal potential is yet to be realised but that will come in time. One good thing is you can really hear the words coming through. The bass player shies away from the audience, which is a shame but he plays well. The lead guitarist looks the part in a mod sort of way, keeping it simple but effective & wearing a very visual bright orange leather jacket. The sound levels are just right, the place isn't that busy (it is a Tuesday night after all) and the engineer has eased back on the volume so you can hear everything very clearly showing the songs off to good effect. 8 Lives Left then kick in with a song called "Shout About It" which is great, reminding me of Soul Asylum at their best. There's some good drumming on this too. They keep changing styles from pop to punk to C & W, and somehow it all fits and they're all good songs. The subject matter of the last number "The Tramp Song" is a bit questionable and could be interpreted in a bad light, Shout About It would be a better finisher for these guys. I can see good things happening for them, it's early days & they're off to a very good start. Band No 2 hit the stage & they're called Dead Fly Bushowski a band that have admirably made the trip through from Glasgow to be here tonight. We're quickly thrown back in time to a old smoke filled 60's club vibe, the engineer again has this sussed, you could really feel you're in that time frame, lots of heavy reverb & deep sounds. The singer has a good Joe Cocker type voice & there's very much a 'Doors/Jim Morrison' thing going on, so much so you wonder if they wouldn't be better just doing the whole Doors tribute thing for real. With songs of angst & slow, slow, tempos it can at times be like a 33 record you desperately want to switch to 45. They obviously don't care though & are being true to their thing, the singer blowing smoke clouds into the lights & giving some convincing vocal lines. The songs aren't instantly accessible & I struggle to think who under 40 would be into this very retro sound, I sidle up to the engineer for an opinion and he thinks they're "f**king great", so it's not lost on everyone! It occurs to me people who like Led Zeppelin's less hook-oriented music might take to this. Again the bass player of this band as with the others never once faces the audience, but fortunately the guitarist throws the odd shape here & there to keep things interesting. Each song this band play is longer than the last one, which fits their vibe, but it can drag, so this may limit their potential audience. At the end the tempo changes (at last) & there's some good interaction between the whole band & use of very effective start stop dynamics. This band would probably fare very well for a short support set using their start and finish numbers, but for longer sets the tempo needs some variety. The singer did have good emotion in his voice & they all looked like they believed in what they were doing, so they could yet surprise us all in time. Step Up Band No 3, a 3 piece called Debaser. This is another young band probably without much stage experience, the guitarist/singer looking down at his guitar for most of the set. The vocals aren't developed enough to do most of these songs justice. However, the quieter more relaxed songs fit his voice well. This is a band that could do with bringing a dedicated leadsinger on board who can really deliver & let the guitarist concentrate on playing, writing and backing vocals. Debaser's drummer misses the odd beat but smiles throughout the set & there's a fun vibe going on, with a little application he could be really good as he travels round the kit more than most. The bass player (yet again I'm sorry to say) is turned at 45 degrees throughout, competent enough but a bit wary of facing the audience. The singer breaks a guitar string but valiantly finishes the song, showing character by not panicking. And we then have a 10 minute wait while this is resolved. One sign of a new band on the scene is the lack of a spare guitar for these emergencies but nothing that can't be remedied in time. Debaser's drummer sang a couple of fun solo songs at the end so they are not short on humour either, maybe he should try singing lead on a couple of songs. The band thanked Baby Tiger, the audience & Chiasma (for letting them use their equipment), which was a nice touch. Band No 4 Chiasma start off with the longest instrumental run since Freebird's extended mix & it's great for the first two minutes, after that you begin to suspect there just aren't many songs in their bag of tricks, with a lot of high pitched two chord stuff going on, buying time. They manage to look deadly serious about this & seem to be well into it. There's a bit of Pink Floyd feel in there somewhere, it would probably be spot on if you were into drugs or if you just like long drawn out instrumentals which lets face it most people don't. On a positive note all the bands used Chiasma's equipment tonight, so they've got their gear together a drum logo & they've managed to get all their supporters standing up front which is something none of the other bands managed to do tonight. They also have a better interaction with each other going on than most of tonight's bands. In a way they have the hardest slot, playing late on an early weeknight, when the slightest excuse at this point will send 'tired working next day' people home. There are no vocals & the bass player has his back to the audience facing his amp & never looks round at all for the first 20 minutes of the same song. Hmm, could be a good time to call it a night... Lester Smulski |