| bannockburn high school |
| as one of the organizers of bench aid (the other being Ben) our job was too organize it to raise money for school benches. me and Ben couldnt give 2 fucks about the benches, we just wanted any excuse for a gig in the school. within a few days we had Awake (obviously), Muterberi, the soul divas and Reoccuring on the line up. all for the �2 ticket which wasnt too bad. we sold quite a few tickets but couldnt tell you the exact amount because we couldnt be bothered keeping a record. we dont even know how much money was raised yet, and it was over 3 months ago. anyway, we only got time for a proper practise on the day. everything went well but we couldnt get the schools good drumkit so we just nicked it anyway. The sound system that was set up was pretty good, and better than the usual shite that the school uses for Stars in your Eyes and other stuff. after the run through, we opened the doors half an hour late, and were pretty impressed by the amount of people who were coming. we did notice a large percentage were moshers (actually, everyone was) this was kept secret to the Soul Divas, becuase they were a shitty indie band and we wanted to see what happened. heres some reviews of each of the bands: THE SOUL DIVAS (real name souldriver): when they walked onto the stage the lead singer, brain's face was priceless. he was facing a sea of hoodies and chains and his set list included 'She's Electric'. He knew it was going to go done like the titanic, and so did the audience. although they did their best, the heckling got too much. they deserved it though. the drummer was fuckin good, but the rest of them were smug gits. I cant mind their set, but it was the usual Ocean Colour Scene type bollocks. it wasnt helped by soom switiching their mikes on and off from the back. after the gig they never met up again. NO STARS AWAKE: my band, and our first gig. we werent all that prepared. although, quite a majority of the audience were there too see us thanks to Ian, the bass player, selling tickets at Stirling High. we had just spent �50 getting lights from roadshow music, so when we came on, it actually looked pretty fuckin smart. we got a good cheer, but I think the crowd were glad to be rid of the soul divas. we blasted into "hate to say I told you so" by the Hives, and it was our best practised song, and was really tight. it went down well, unlike nick and neils stage banter which was utter gash. after we played the Hives, we started "Stay together for the Kids" by Blink 182 for some reason. It went well but this was when Neils flaws started appearing. he began to forget the words, or singing the wrong ones. this was really noticable to the audience. after Blink 182 came "Buddy Holly" by Weezer which also went down well. it was also pretty tight and I think Neil made it through it without a hitch. after this came "Disarm" by the Smashing Pumpkins. me and Ian left the stage, as it was to be played 'acoustically' (with electric guitars). This song was our fatal flaw so far. why did we have 2 guitars when warner could have easily played it himself?? then there was neils singing. I think he had a sore throught, and his singing was REALLY crap. he also began to forget the words. Me and Ian came back on after this shambles of a song and we were subjected to Ians Bass solo. this went on for 3 hours. good, but too long. then we played "swallowed" by Bush. another disaster, we all missed a chorus and neil repeatedly sung the wrong lyrics, badly. we thought, we couldnt go wrong with our last song, "Creep" by Radiohead, but yet again we were wrong. I kept fuckin up the drums, Neil sat on an amp during the heavy chorus when he should have been jumping about (maybe) and there was other guitar related problems. basically our set had a good start, but finished badly due to lack of practise. that was out first and last gig as we split up soon after. *** out of 5 MUTERBERI: the beri. the mooters. along with AwaKe, they also had a small fanbase in the crowd. when they came on, they got a good cheer. they obviously practise a lot as they were as tight as shit. without arse kissing, I thought soom was amazing on drums, especially as he's self taught. quite a few others mentioned this including the ned curtain pullers. Although I dont know the names of the songs, they were pretty good, and you can tell the Smashing Pumpkins are a major influence. at one point Greg jumped off an amp. very rock an roll. they were really good, and went down well with the mosher audience and people watching from the sides of the stage. **** out of 5 REOCCURING: prett good, but they werent too popular with the audience. people started to leave at this point, during their set which I thought was pretty wide. although, to be fair, it was hot in the lecture theartre and someone mentioned there was a fight outside, but this might have been made up to make reoccuring feel better. to be honest, they were quite good. long, keyboard driven songs. the best way to describe it was Doves/Radiohead style. by the end of their set the audience was down to about 10 people, but it wasnt the music, it was the heat and sore arses. *** out of 5 Russ Maclean |