Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands
Alyra
What a surreal start to the night: a student metal band with passion, style and innovation to boot. The whispy-sounding vocalist plays keyboard with one hand. To his left stands his alter ego – the one with the real power-metal voice, who settles for a few backing vocals and a guitar. It's a shame that Alyra are occasionally sloppy, because a few more hours in the practice room might have proved them worthy contenders for first place.
Sadly, poor performances on behalf of certain band members were sufficient to tip the final balance unfavourably. In their defence, Alyra obviously love what they do, but that didn't cut much slack amongst more polished – if less adventurous – competitors. Intriguing, though: worth a second listen.
Mostly Mouth
Winners of this section, Mostly Mouth provided the most comfortable and interesting set of the night. Their vocals lacked some balls at times, given the general genre, but overall it was a solid performance. A few tracks stood out in particular, but it was more just decent background music: not head-banging, but enough to stop crowd conversation. At times the band seemed a little uncomfortable in their surroundings – with little audience banter or bravado witnessed – though there is still time before the final. Mostly Mouth might just pull out all the stops for the big night, taking confidence from this win. It'll be an interesting battle.
Spare Half Hour
Apparently tipped to win, Spare Half Hour drew reassurance from their dominating fan base. True, they were well prepared for the gig – throwing in reggae, pop, indie and blues. Nevertheless, there seemed to be very little deviation in the outcome, with promising starts all tending towards the same end sound.
As a result, ten minutes into the set the audience seemed restless. A couple of tracks to note, but a more exciting repertoire would have improved the show no end. Although technically SHH were arguably best of the three, a less distinctive set rendered the band marginal runners-up.
24th Feb 2005