It's not often you get the chance to see six bands in one night and this gig was just like a festival except it was on a Wednesday night in a small basement venue. Despite rushing home from work and throwing down a quick meal I still managed to miss the first band 'Chimeric State' which is a shame as they have only done a handful of gigs and I do like to catch bands early on in their careers. This was one of the main reasons for popping down tonight, the chance to see six band put on by End Of The Trail Records, a label that claims to be "genuinely in it for the music".

The first band I got to see was 'Weatherbird' and boy, were they impressive. This gig came about half way though their UK tour and they performed a tight, slick set. Their music is kind of like 90's college/grunge rock, droney guitars and vocals with some catchy tunes. I could well imagine myself screaming along to the tunes if I knew them better, which is something I intend to do.

 

The next band 'Half Hour Hotel' were much more stadium rock, in fact maybe a bit too much stadium rock for The Latest Bar. It is one thing to try and play a crowd when you are filling stadiums but trying the same thing in a little venue can make you look misplaced. This band is somewhere between U2 and Bon Jovi with good solid music but in the end I felt they were not adding much to the genre. They lost my attention when trying to get the 20 something crowd clapping along to one of their power ballads. Not a bad band but I've seen one too many bands like them before to be impressed.

 

Up next was 'Crisis Warning' female fronted punk rock performed well with punchy two and a half minute punk songs, full on drums and driving bass accompanied by a manic guitarist jumping all over the stage. All this with fast paced screaming lyrics sung with real passion. Everything an underground punk band should be!

 

If that was not your 'cup of tea' when it comes to ear splitting heavy music then maybe 'Death Ape Disco' will get your head banging. This band was like Pearl Jam on a speed metal trip: heavy trashy guitars chugging along to the double kick drum lead percussion, with a mixture of manic speed metal rifts interwoven with more melodic vocals and backing harmonies. Once again performed with tight professionalism which certainly made me think about checking out the label to see who else they have on their roster.

 

To finish off the evening was Flok, who I had heard recently on RadioReverb, they are much more of a rock'n'roll folk band. I thought they would have a big job following those punk and metal bands but, by the time they had got half way though their first track, they had won over the crowd. I think they were rocking up the music a bit more than they normally would, which gave it a hint of Led Zeppelin's more folky tracks. They played a lot of new tracks they had written over the last month or so with a few of them sounding like work in progress. One of the new songs 'Weight Of The World' stood out as potential single material, with an instantly catch chorus. They also played a few old songs, which were more finely tuned. I imagine that, once the rest of the new tracks have the same polish, it will be a blinding set.

 

Overall it was an interesting night of music, a great showcase for a wide variety of bands and musical styles, but you have to wonder if this would have been better done at a weekend to give it more of a festival feel, or, even better, to have split it into two nights with three bands on each night. It was a lot to take in on one night but I definitely saw some stuff I liked and will be catching up with some of these bands the next time they play Brighton.

 

Jonski Mason