Witness to the Beard - The Cavendish Arms

The Mighty Beard are mightily funked up tonight, with obligatory welcomes to friends and family who've travelled a long way to be hear tonight.

They're fast, they're urgent, they are storming. Tonight they are basement punk.

Less grunge than last time, more polished to, starting to come into their own, more confident. The sound of wearing wellies and jumping in muddy puddles.

"Come on strap, don't fail me now!"

The Beard Army in attendance whipped into their chant of "Witness! Witness! Witness!" Will one day Wembley echo with the same?

Aw man, Hayley, the drummer, singing a sultry cover of the Saved by the Bell theme tune, that's gotta go down in the history books of tv theme cover versions, with Clockwork Bear's cover of the Raccoons theme and The Red Bull Dozer's Littlest Hobo.

Kalorie - The Cavendish Arms

Aw man, this place is packed. Maybe picking a seat at the back to look moody and mysterious was a bad idea. Its a nice seat, but there's plenty of folk standing in front of me.

The band on stage look like Girls Aloud with guitars, sequins are in. They sound like commercial rock, raw but well designed. There's something a little disjointed about the first song, the way the guitar cuts out when the backing vocals kick in, or the quiet bits for the bass riffs, it leaves you hanging in mid-air.


I'm not sure if they actually sound like Sugarcoma or if its just my futile grasp of teengirl soft rock.

Surprised that they have a Myspace page and a busy Facebook group but there's no sign of them on Songkick. I'll soon sort that out... One show now and a couple blurrycam shots.

Well-informed howling guitar riffs, bits of soul in the vocals and mid-eighties epic soundtrack too. The mix is a little clunky, a bigger venue and more time sound checking could do them wonders.
They swiftly turn the crowd into converts.

They lose three points for using the cliche "Now we're gonna take it down a little bit".

I'm still wondering who they remind me of. Not The Sahara Hotnights, Kalorie are too commercial for that. Shakira? The one with the glasses? Anastasia?


Ooh, who were that bunch of teenage girls who played last year's Indietracks? Kalorie are better than them.

They lose another two points for a fast rock cover of 'Fever'. It probably seemed like a good idea in rehearsals, but really, even I've recorded my own version.

Camden Calling: Adrian Roye and the Exiles - The Cavendish Arms

I swear I've seen this mob before, possible at Monkey Chews. Cello, drums, electri-acoustic guitar chap with dreads singing and cute girl on five string bass. Ooh and I spy bongos on stage, this could be fun.

Its smooth luxurious flowing music, the chap sings almost like Dave McAlmont or terence trent darby mixed with other influences. Brief moments of boy/girl harmonies.

They do bit of the old instrument swapping -they are obviously professional musicians so cello chap plays the bass that he's always wanted to, bass girl's on guitar and singing chap straps on the bongos. I wonder if the drummer chap is sad about missing out.

Ooh, three person harmonies, wasn't expecting that.

"I really like them" says the girl to my left. She's videoing them too.

Eep, brief snatches of uncalled for vocal riffing. Luckily its just in one song.

Its pretty chilled out stuff, I see early computer graphics of lush landscapes flying by with this as the soundtrack. Does that make sense?

A bit funky towards the end of the set, kind of neat with a monster bongo wig-out and a mellow Kate bush cover . I swear I've seen them before.

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Camden Calling: Mada and Wolfgang - The Cavendish Arms

Its a bit arty. So you've got your band providing some stable rhythm, Nina's friend Steve on trumpet centre stage, whilst stood to the left is Mada, dressed in black, hair unruly, clutching a shef of notes and lyric sheets.

He's like a howling gale outside, branches druming against a window during a nighttime storm.

The trumpet makes it somewhat jazz, but I can't help but think of the more darker numbers from Jesus Christ Superstar.

Camden Calling is an organisation. to improve the access of homeless and vulnurable people have to mainstream music and popular culture, aye.

This mob on stage are doing an improvised set, its Steve's first time with them, but I recognise some of the tunes from the other month. Gnatty guitar noodles and yeah, the trumpet adds depth, but its all in the shadow of Mada's booming lyrics.

After Mada's set, the backing mob, Wolfgang, minus trumpet, just a three-piece, they go solo for a couple of songs.

Some neat guitar effects pedal-work. They sound like eighties hard rawk, wee moments of Springsteen.

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