Allusondrugs / Scouts / Happy Accidents / Belladonnas [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 21/9/14]
Belladonnas
Given how inexperienced and nervous Belladonnas were, critically deconstructing this set and expecting it to meet professional-grade standards wouldn’t be fair. Although Belladonnas have some decent songs and got a good crowd response, more practice and gigging experience is definitely needed. Effective grunge sets always seem as if they’re on the verge of falling apart – but beneath it all is a solid core of highly experienced musicianship that enables the performers to find the right balance between rags and riches.
With time, I’m sure Belladonnas will find that balance too.
Happy Accidents
Melodic garage punk that could fit easily onto the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack. Rough edged pop songs with cool grooves and a decent if patchy vocal performance. Nothing massively original and more work needed, but well done and entertaining. Read more…
Last night was a reset-hitting moment for a venue whose continued survival was confirmed just over 24 hours previously. Vintage swing music played in the background while earlycomers gathered around a table laden with instruments, effect boxes, microphones, an iPad, and even fairy lights to await the arrival of first act, A R T E L S. 
I made a big mistake the first time I listened to this EP. I didn’t play it loud enough. 
I love bands that mean it. Cold Summer have spent a fair few years working on themselves – and on Car Crash (In Progress), it really shows. Polished and professional yet still raw, passionate, and in your face, this is a total barnstormer of a song that you need to check out right now.
Metal’s been around for a long time now – but it never ceases to amaze me how many musicians are still finding ways to breathe new life into a genre so frequently mocked for its backward-looking retromania.
As a music blogger, I get through a lot of songs over the course of a day. Very few make it through to the point where I feel compelled to write about them – and 99% of the time this is because the songwriters and performers in question are either too afraid to really open up and express themselves, or haven’t developed to the point where they’re capable of getting the point across in the manner they obviously intend. 
This show was special. 
Good things come to those who wait. At least, they do if you’re a music fan; for musicians, good things only come to those who put in endless hours, days, weeks, months, and years of gruelling and brutal hard work. Bearing this in mind, Crooked Trees‘ emergence from the often precipitous world of Kickstarter crowdfunding is a very good thing indeed. 
The Boileroom team sure know how to throw the quietest (or at least best-soundproofed) album launch parties in town. 
As someone who’s already