Miss the Occupier, Antique Scream, Black Carnation – 13th Note

Stevie the organiser dude behind Equal and Opposite introduces me to the boys form antique Scream as a journalist for The Fly. He finds it hilarious that I’m there with a wee notepad and pen but after kicking him in the shins a few times he settles. The boys are dead nice and lavish me with a free t-shirt, CD and, best of all, badge. Turns out they’re from Mesa, a little town in Arizona where strangely enough I’ve visited.

Stevie jokes that tonight is the battle of the three pieces and Miss the Occupier come on stage. I realise I’d seen them at the Wickerman but hadn’t paid much attention at the time. They started off like a energetic punkier Elastica with male backing vocals although at some points I thought it was a feminine voice and got all confuzzled. By the third song singer/bassist Roz’ vocals are coming out really strong and I’m hearing definite Manic Street Preachers 00000000000 (Hey my cat just typed that- speaking in binary now Beau?) but with a more modern basslines providing a different sound. Their sound is solid and at points sound like there’s more going on than for a three piece.

All the songs tend to follow a minimalist verse light on guitar, vocals in time with the rhythm section (rat-a-tat-tat) that then fires into a rocking chorus that makes the song. The 6th song described as near to a love song as they do and again it reminds me of latter day MSP. ”Nothing Ever Perfect” finishes very fast and heavy with some impressive lady growling. Song number 9 struck me with “You make her ill she treats you alright, all night”. I hear that! Later in the evening Mr Snowball asks me what I thought of them and I tried being objective, well they’re punky and fun and energetic…”they’re shite” was his eloquent response and I concurred they might not be the next poet laureates but they sounded good.

I was looking forward to Antique Scream up next, such nice boys. They warm up playing with they’re sound effects and fancy guitar solos and then they get right into it. They sounded great could have been playing at a stadium but….. Led Zeppelin meets Jimi Hendrix. Now both band I love but I want to see something new! Vocalist sounds very much like lead singer from Reef without the warble – which is a good thing. Good old soaring rock vocals – can we turn them up a tad please? Oooh topless drummer, it’s been nigh on a week since I saw a naked gentleman shaped person. Little bits of Lenny Kravitz come into play as a result of the funky oldstylee rock n roll crossed with the smooth vocals. The drummer is amazing. He is banging away non-stop using the entire kit and his sheen of sweat is well deserved. Meanwhile the bass playing side-show bob lookielike is flailing around the stage using up the entire perimeter. Overall well entertaining technically excellent raunch rock but I can’t imagine them finding a niche in today’s market.

Is the Drummer that Timothy Dalton lookalike I fancy wot used to be in Wilbur Force? No not tall enough. Hey, maybe this chaps single. I read in the thirteenth note flyer that Black Carnation is “a bloody orgy of Jeff Buckley and Chris Cornell…with John Bonham on drums”. Oooh exciting! Oh shit is that a lassie sat behind me who’s boyfriend I used to snog years ago? I suddenly want to leave. I manage to stay for three songs. The first song demonstrates the Soundagardeny type riffs and the vocalist does have a Buckley tone to him. The second song however sounds distinctly like Queens of the Stone Age and by the third song I’m hearing the pixies with vocal harmonies very reminiscent of Alice in Chains. This would be my ideal superband but I don’t stay after this – I’ve got all the CDs at home and I’m tired and hungover.