Summer’s over, or almost at least. But it seems that the good spirits are still around by the end of the night with a brand new promoter, the name to follow for this one is “New Town Promotions” who started up their first gig down in Bletchely at the Working Mens Club. It’s good to see a few familiar faces around too, with some of the Peartree Bridge/Rock Hard crew down who helped out with the sound. Though New Town hasn’t settled on a particular venue yet, this one seems a bit unorthodox, looking more like a bingo hall but still working out fairly well…
The night has two local bands to fire it up, the first being Equinox who need no introduction if you’ve been reading the site as they played at most of the local festivals. But the guys have a couple more new tracks on display now and they are pretty much poles apart. “Avec Le Langue” has a bit of a 90′s house vibe with synths being the main source of noise, while “Do It On Your Own” is a lot more laid back and goes off in another direction altogether.
Along with the new tracks, there’s also the usual other songs there too, but Equinox are starting to sound a bit more expansive than they did before the summer, hopefully they don’t spread their sound too thin with their experimentation and can keep some form of “Equinox” sound in there too. But as ever, the usual notes are there, vocals are still not quite as up to the same standard as the melodies and the guitar seemed a little too trebly to cut through the rest of the music, but their sound and the new tracks show they have some ideas, which can go a fair way.
After that, the Duke Of Marmalade are up and looking like they’re ready to kick off a bit of a fuss. Unlike Equinox, these guys seem pretty sure-footed about their sound and are soundly direct with their approach of funked up party rock. There’s a bit of a “home turf” feeling about this band tonight though, there’s a lot of people around to see them and the band also seem to be on a higher form than usual, even seeming a bit wild. As I said before, DoM have a strong party rock sound with funk grooves, a tight format and danceable beats with a little bit of indie and raucous punk in there too.
“Screaming Simon Sam” sounds a bit of a textbook example with an intro of break-beats while “Halfway Down” has a bit of an Ibeza nightclub vibe to it. The guys also nab a couple of encores too, as a few people get down to the front to have a bit of a dance, it’s a sound end and it also seems the lads are clicking onto their sound and have found themselves a solid niche to power along, what’s up next for them is anyone’s guess.
Looking at the turnout for the night, it’s not been that bad a start, the crowd did seem a bit mixed which is a curse or a blessing, a good variety but the under eighteens tend to stick in their groups as does everyone else. Maybe a bit more youth support as New Town becomes more prominent is what’s needed, at least we have a new face on the scene to give local bands a chance to showcase themselves. Sometimes a little faith can go a long way…
Craig \m/
Duke of Marmalade on Myspace
Equinox on Myspace
