Gigs

Gig Review: General Lee + Slay That Dog + Wolves Stole My Childhood + Federal Black 40

Venue: Barfly Cambridge
Date: 17 April 2008

It’s the Cambridge Band Competition, Heat Two, and as we walk in, General Lee are busy beating the living daylights out of their instruments. The pair of them - for they are but two - have positioned themselves away from the stage, in the centre of the room, twixt the bar and the wall and are penned in on either side by fans agog at this bizarre arrangement. It does allow both Matt, on guitar, and Gaz, on drums, to gaze lovingly into each others chops as they belt out full-on hard fucking rock.

As they blitz through ‘Death Row’ and ‘Diablo’ Matt encourages the crowd to sing along and they oblige with feeling. There’s even a circle pit kicking off over by the stage! “Any General Lee first-timers in tonight?” asks Matt to a huge roared response. “You gonna come and see us again?” “NOOOOOO!” is the inevitable response. There’s points on offer tonight (yes, this is a competition) for stage presence and we wonder if maybe they’ll get docked a few for not actually being on stage (Matt actually leaves the venue at one point whilst still thrashing out a riff on his wireless guitar before returning to huge applause). We hope to Hell not because they’ve stolen the show already.

Slay That Dog play a brutal death metal/thrash mash-up - complex stuff when you consider the band has an average age of 15. It’s not a band that’s easy to watch. They do look completely lost up on stage, with lead singer, Charlie, refusing to look anyone but his mates in the eyes. They suffer from bad levels too with the bass volume wound right up drowning out all the intricate work of the lead guitarist. And then there’s always that nagging thought that if they win tonight’s “Beer Cheer” they won’t even be able to drink it! Still, the lads really improve when they groove, striding out of their unsteady ‘core breakdowns to hammer in a solid, punchy rhythm. Drummer Theo shines, even busting out a drum solo and the windmilling fans at the front lap it all up - as a thankyou they’re invited up on stage to headbang out the last track.

Wolves Stole My Childhood are like a blend of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. They box clever by rocking formulaically hard but occasionally pulling it out of the mainstream hooks, twisting into the more obscure, with big switches in rhythm and a series of jarring psychedelic open-chords. ‘Breakthrough’ is one that stands out along with ‘Got Shit?’ and it’s two-chord, off-key, classic Nirvana structure. On the downside, the bass is still particularly loud, especially when a string is left to resound. At one point lead guitarist/vocalist Dave rubs his guitar up the venue’s central pillar to achieve a sound like nails down a blackboard. Inevitably, he’s forced to retune which kind of ruins the effect but what the heck. Maybe their influences are too rooted in the past, their songs too predictable, but I loved it. All they need is to tighten up the performance, throw in a bit more energy and they might just win this damned thing one day.

Federal Black 40 are a relatively new band around these parts but they’re already been making some mighty big waves. They‘ve obviously been doing something right because there are plenty of “FB40” t-shirts knocking about tonight. As soon as they step on stage it’s fairly easy to see that they’ve got this round in their pockets. The step up in energy from the previous two bands is immediately obvious. Bassist Matt pulls a variety of faces and poses whilst guitarist Kev whirls like a dervish, steps off stage to join the moshpit, before screaming into lead singer/guitarist Dan’s mic for good measure. Dan, himself seems remarkably composed, in comparison, but the band hasn’t exactly got a slouch for a frontman. Besides his croaky, pitch-perfect vocal he’s yelling innumerable insults at the crowd – one particular favourite is “This one’s for all the Federal Black bitches!” – niiiice.

The fact they have two guitars to battle the bass overdrive means that the levels are much more balanced. They certainly seem to be enjoying it up on stage anyway as they produce plenty of hard-hitting rock anthems. The only time things start to drop off is when they bring out their slow and steady songs like ‘Better’. It’s not that they are bad songs, but whether they work as well when put in a live set, especially in tonight’s context, is another thing. So to sum up, eyeliner, girly adoration, fast-rocking, plenty of energy. That combination won them both tonight’s heat (General Lee certainly ran them close) and a case of beer. We wish them well in the final!

For fans of: Foo Fighters, Malefice, Velvet Revolver
Band links = General Lee | Slay That Dog | Wolves Stole My Childhood | Federal Black 40

Tags: live, gig, general lee, slay that dog, review, federal black 40, rock, band+competition, cambridge

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