January - conTRast @ the cartoon
Feeling a little uncomfortable after the brief departure DAl, I made a few mistakes as did we all, but being our first gig as a threesome with Fin, we were all thrown by the sound levels of the onstage P.A and could not always hear each other while playing! oF COURSE WE ROCKED!!! I would like to just thank the huge turnout for coming to give their support including some of my very good friends and well actually thankyou to:Mick, Yvonne, Kevin, Deep, Bhavin, Jo and Ian for coming. Hope you all liked my QVC t-shirt, it's Fin and Cizs dads! (shhh!)
By the fifth song we finally loosened up, and by the sixth song, my guitar pedal was flashing 'battery low' at me threatening to cut me off mid-song til the end of our set. Our rendition of Alice in Chains 'Nutshell' went down well. The set list was: 1 4get me not 2 lesson learnt 3 maybe 4 handsome and gretel (cover)5 (at which point me and fin swapped instruments) with David Bowie(cover) 6 Drone 7 Need To Feel 8 Nutshell (cover)9 Grim 10 the conTRast song . If you missed this one you can't miss the next - the half moon putney is where it's at!
December - My Ruin @ the garage - review by Dee
Ciz, Fin and I went along to see My Ruin on their 2nd night at the garage. We missed Sugar Coma, (though they made an appearance at the end which was most distasteful, silly twats on stage twirling their hair about and giggling, while the singer practically mimicked Tarries voice and style quite awful it was.) Cay were on when we came in and they sound pretty good and raw for an English band. Couldn't figure out most of the songs though, but we've never heard any before anyway. So My Ruin come onstage, and all 3 of us decided that the bass player is a babe in real life, though her pictures in Kerrang are not as flattering.
Tarrie B gives it to us hard and raw from the word go, and the female drummer rocked, (but to Cizs disappointment she was not on a drum-riser so you could barely see her in action, and A MAN finished her set off!!!). Tarrie spoke of the ex-editor from Metal Hammer saying she looked like she'd eaten too many donuts, of course she wanted to let us know what a prick he was, (& of course we all knew that already) she spoke of truth and righteousness, (just the way we like it) kept it real and cried on stage, nearly twice. Obviously emotional, she then rips into another song, which makes us love her all the more.
QUOTE OF THE EVENING:(to fans) 'I AM LUCKY TO SELL ONE FUCKING RECORD'
I was down with that particular statement. Although we stood, arms folded, a lot of the time, we loved the gig, we just can't be bothered to mosh when we came to watch the band, and want to be able to take it all in.
This evening could've been a fake, and that would've crumbled everything for me, (ever seen White Zombie live? what a fucking circus) but they're real, and we can relate to that.
November - Dream Theatre - review by Ciz
As a band, brilliant - very entertaining! Very good live. James (lead singer) very good, however kept wadderling on towards the end. Concert overall was great, but it was too long, if it ended an hour earlier I'd have no complaints.
As for the drummer- Mike Portnay - Excellent, real smooth and confident, aswell as being highly entertaining and a great crowd-pleaser. Good double-bass technique, although nothing new. Did not improvise at all and I would have liked to see a solo. Mike is a top drummer, one of my favourites, he as his own sound and keeps things interesting. I love his kit and would go again, as long as he leaves us with more than one stick trick!!!
October - Radiohead - review by Fin
fin still ain't written this!
september - ween - no one went
August - 2000 Reading Rock Festival....must see..(but no one can afford to go)
Rage Against The Machine
Beck, Asian Dub Foundation,
Katastrophe Wife, Ween, Queens of The
Stone Age, Foo fighters, Gomez, Eminem
Review: Dee says...Rage must've rocked the hell out the place, as usual keeping themselves to themselves in between songs, but like, it's all said in the lyrics, (why d'you think it took Zach a year to write the damn things?) Beck gave the crowd a trip and a half from mellow gold days to the mix up style that has tangled all are listening buds in his latest offerings, (that secret track on the albums the best one so far!) and he proved (to Fin) that he would not pussy out cos of his break-up with his girlfriend.
ADF filled the crowd with a new way to boogie and perfomance was wicked as standard.
Katastrophe wife, well doesn't Kat look different? sure thing those pictures in melody maker and NME didn't exactly flatter her, but we haven't seen her in a long while. Ween perform some of their more music influenced tunes inducing tranquilliser like effects on the people there to rock. Whta the fuck happened to Eminem? respect to the lyricist an' all he's a clever f**k, but he' s got a lot of growing up to do...