toy soldiers
Toy #1: unfortunately for the headline writers, not number one
The third round of the Battle of the Bands provided the act that will complete the line up for this year’s Grand Final. After the disappointment of last week’s bands and the subsequent IMSoc in-fi ghting about the winners we could only hope for an increase in quality • and how. First up were Alyra.
An experimental prog metal band with swirling, Deftones style atmospherics, Toolesque bass lines and moments of brutal hardcore spazzing, Alyra were certainly innovative, especially in their use of effects and with their astonishingly good bassist using techniques I never even knew existed. Their downfall, however, was in their tendency towards long periods of boring repetition and their vocalist’s attempts to scream into his box of widgits and make cool sounds.
Second on the bill were perennial BOTB entrants Spare Half Hour. The singer was surprisingly good, with a strong and tuneful voice. Their music ranged from some slightly boring generic ‘rock’ to some quite exciting punkier moments. These were certainly the highlight of the set, when the drums kicked in and the pace picked up. Even worse than boring rock is funk rock, however, and SHH committed a crime for which they cannot be forgiven: a slap bass solo.
They weren’t cool in the 80s, and they ain’t cool now. Overall SHH were good, but not quite good enough. November swaggered on stage next, a three piece who are so ‘right now’ it hurts. An A&R man’s wet-dream, November combine Interpol style riffs with Hives’-esque vocals. As well as being musically tighter than Linford Christie’s running shorts, they had some decent (if somewhat generic) songs • although they’re lacking that one hit single.
To make up for that their singer/guitarist is strapping and handsome and their bassist has a silly Strokes-y Afro that belies his good looks. November were a hard act to follow, especially with a strongly indie fl avoured crowd. However, Toy #1 coped manfully with their fi ery brand of punkinfused Britrock. They were a band they certainly weren’t afraid to rock out. When it came down to it, however, they were let down by a number of things.
Firstly their singer, despite a lot of attempted onstage bravado, lacked a really magnetising stage presence and came across as somewhat unconvincing when trying to act hard and metal. A fairly mediocre voice combined with some fairly un-memorable songs led to a fairly disappointing end product. However, they are certainly to be praised for their willingness to play proper, balls-out rock and so if they come back with some better songs then they could be in with a chance.
In the end it was November that progressed to the fi nal to take on Photo and The Fuming Julias.
23rd Feb 2006