Baddies member expelled for unbuttoning shirt.

Black Russian are the first band on.  My companion bemoans her luck at catching two Joy Division sound-a-like bands in the space of a week before she realises that this is the same Joy Division sound-a-like band she saw at Square Festival. There’s lot to say, if you’re a fan of Joy Division, Interpol or Editors then you’re going to like this lot, if not, you aren’t. Four bonus points awarded for the guitarist’s hair and enthusiasm, three taken off for using an electric drum kit.

Now for Exit_International.  I’ve been looking forward to seeing these as I’ve managed to miss them thus far.  For those that don’t know, this band has two bassists, the who sings more is Scott, formally of Midasuno.  The one that doesn’t sing as much is Fudge, formally of Space In The 50s and before that, Martini Henry Rifles. The drummer I don’t know but tonight, with his dark long hair and glasses, playing his drums stage right, it leaves Fudge looking like he’s caught in some kind of mirror.  Good stage symmetry.

First impressions are that they sound twat all like Midasuno and that they’re very good at lunging.  Between song banter involves Fudge beckoning the audience forward  by requesting “an orgy with no cocks”.  This does really materialise.  Shame.

Music wise the closest band I can think of that nobody will have heard of are Newport stalwarts/legends (delete as applicable, I’m deleting the former), Novocaine.  My advice to you is to look up both Novocaine and Exit International in the very near future.

This is the third time I’ve seen Science Bastard (it’s their 4th gig).  They seem to be on fast forward.  Three of the members were in Frommars who although ace, did have a habit of having about 20 new songs every time you saw them play.  By the time they imploded this habit meant that they had a very strong set indeed.  Science Bastard have taken four gigs to get to this stage despite the fact it looks like they’re just having a massive piss about.

Tonight, lead singer Vern leaves his keyboard at home (deliberately I might add).  This means that it’s his first gig as a frontman without an instrument to hide behind.  I resist calls from his brother (and guitarist) to heckle him with cries of “you look like Beth Ditto” as he does a rather good and hyperactive job of taking to the dancefloor and singing 80% of the set with his back to the audience.  Less Beth Ditto, more Shaun Ryder.

Baddies take to the stage looking like extras from The Shawshank Redemption, all light blue shirts done up to the neck.  I’d heard a lot about these, we once tried to book them, the NME were calling them the next bid thing and the world was quivering with excitement.  OK, that’s an exaggeration but they were tipped for big things.

It’s sort of jerk, stop-start frenetic indie that has been done before by bigger or better bands.  We Are The Physics do this sort of thing brilliantly well are are a more entertaining live band, tonight’s between song chat was unintelligible.  The Futureheads do the harmonising bit well and already have the profile and chart positions.  When they slow down a bit they end up sounding like Weezer but more often sound like they’re about to break into My Sharona.  An unnamed gig goer said “they sound like Franz Ferdinand vs Terrorvision with Shane Richie on vocals”.  I thought he looked like ex Liverpool and current Preston striker Neil Mellor.  This paragraph will give you a good idea what they sound like and a good idea as to why they’re going to have to try harder if they’re going to break the mould and emerge into the public’s conciousness.  There’s a lot of quiche out there, these guys are just an omlette pie.