Tonight's gig took place at the illustrious Voodoo Rooms in Sunderland. Previous gigs there include Nine Black Alps, Maximo Park, The Rakes and The Others to name but a few. These were all before they ‘made it', but a good indication that if you fall lucky, you might just see your next favourite band in an intimate venue. This is of course before all the ‘cool kids' jump on the bandwagon and EBay touts click on, and within a blink of an eye you're locked out of the next gig in town a year later. Battle are one of those bands I keep hearing the name of, without actually hearing the tunes. Once or twice they've cropped up in the ‘ones to watch 2006' sections, so I was hoping that this could be a good night. The venue is one of those stereotypical "Indie clubs'. A stage in the corner, a couple of couches thrown round the back of the room, posters on the walls, graffiti in the toilets.

First up were local band Seven Heroes. I was quite looking forward to these. With the Sunderland band scene buzzing at the minute and this particular band seemingly cropping up all over in the local papers at the minute, I was expecting big things. It turned out to be a band I wanted to like but couldn't quite bring myself to. To be fair the sound was poor. As I knew I was reviewing the gig, I'd decided to make notes in my mobile. Partly because I don't trust my own memory, and ‘cos id had a few. I've got about 6 or 7 names of bands I thought they sounded like written down. Overall I couldn't get past a Stereophonics feel to things. But also noticed things such as one song which had Strokes guitars, one had a Foo Fighters intro, and another sounded like the intro to a muse song. I didn't think there was any kind of direction there, which would need to be sorted if the band was to go to the next level.

Next up were Roland Shanks. Never heard of them before in my life. Whoever was doing the sound on the night must've been listening to a different gig to me as once again it was terrible. Even worse than the previous bands'. At one point my girlfriend (who couldn't see the band ‘cos she's only a little'n) asked if ‘this is just an instrumental'. As i'm a little bit taller I could see the front mans lips moving, and just about hear his vocals. However it didn't stop me liking what I could make out. Strong baselines and that 80's sound, not too dissimilar to that captured by the likes of the Killers and the Bravery. I wouldn't mind seeing this lot again to try and make up my mind properly.

Next up Battle. I'd saw them once before. They opened Radio 1's One Big Weekend about 9 months previous. After playing 3 songs, most of the crowd had lost interest. Then again not surprising as Kasabian and the Foos were on later. I can't say I was greatly impressed with them that day either, but was willing to give them another chance. A bit of deja voo here. It seems literally half the people who had turned up had come to see Seven Heroes. There was a very small crowd when Battle took to the stage. The band got straight into their set. Can't say I was greatly impressed, once again. Not really bad, but not something that got me going. The best I could say is that live they were like a second rate Bloc Party, and I don't like them either. To tell the truth, the sounded nothing like their latest single. I'd found and listened to that, specifically with this gig in mind. That wasn't too bad, again nothing special.

I've been to a few gigs where I couldn't wait till the end. Not because I wasn't enjoying myself, but because I couldn't wait to hear what was going to happen next. I couldn't wait till the end of this gig.... ‘cos my girlfriend was nagging me, I was tired and after pissing down all night, it had stopped for a few minutes so I was looking for a dry run to the taxi rank.

It never hurts to check out the ‘next big thing'. A lot of the time you might actually find that they're shite, or just not to your taste. But it's safe to say I'll end up at a lot of gigs at the Voodoo Rooms and will end up finding my new favourite band, until the next one comes along.

http://www.thisisbattle.com/
http://rolandshanks.co.uk/
http://www.sevenheroes.com/