This gig appeared to be cursed. The whole thing was supposed to be in Tabu but the day before the gig, the venue decided to jack the hire price up. This was obviously a pain in the arse but not insurmountable. When arriving at Tabu however, it was discovered that they’d not ordered any alcohol. Clearly this wasn’t acceptable. At very short notice the gig was moved to upstairs in Dempseys. Phew, catastrophe averted. Until the opening band weren’t allowed to play as they didn’t have I.D. on them that is.

So, down to 2 bands. With it being upstairs in Dempseys and thus haunted by Twisted By Design, everyone sat down at tables and is very civilized. I couldn’t see anyone stroking their chins but maybe they were aware of me checking on them.

Kutosis hit the stage at half 9 with their rather great set opener You Told Me Devro Decides. It kicks off without instruments, just the band members shouting the intro in a Futureheads-esque harmony kind of way. It works and the be-seated crowd literally sit up and take notice. Joseph hits the ground running with it’s catchy yelping that even my housemate liked. Barbie Hips follows and a slightly crazy woman on the table in front of me starts whooping and hollering, clearly she’s never been to Twisted.
Using the tried and trusted review technique of describing a band using the stickers plastered on to the band’s equipment, Kutosis’ sound like a spiky, post punk alliance of Ikara Colt and Martini Henry Rifles (Joseph in particular has a passing resemblance to post-Martinis incarnation Space In The 50s). This might sound like they are just intent on making a racket but these boys have tunes, especially the cracking set closer. With Adam Walton, Bethan Elfyn and Huw Stephens already fans of the band, 2009 is set to be their year.

Samoans don’t have any stickers and none of them are wearing band t-shirts. Clearly this is just to spite me. For those of you that don’t know, these guys used to be called Scissorkick Victory and are made up of Dan from Circa Regna Tonat, Todd Campbell, formerly of SKWAD and Calvin Ley, formerly of Reserved For Nothing.
Their sound isn’t a million miles away from Circa but is probably slightly more accessible. My housemate thought they sounded like Smashing Pumpkins and while I can see elements of the band in the guitar sound I wouldn’t go to a gig expecting Today or Disarm. To my ears they had more in common with early Biffy Clyro with Dan’s voice even resembling Simon (I’m dying to call him Sam) Neil’s howl at times.
Despite the taught, epic nature of the songs, crazy woman is now up dancing on her own (“That’s crack for you” my housemate mutters). She really does seem like she’s enjoying herself, maybe I’ll hire her for gigs. The track on their myspace site, Borneo Function, was the highlight of set although I’m pretty sure there was a song called Floor Men With Beards which merits a mention for title alone!

If you fancy checking these 2 bands out, they’re playing together again on the 1st February in Barfly supporting The Airborne Toxic Event. On this evidence it’ll be well worth making your way down.