Jar Music Live: Plugged In Showcase
Wednesday 19th October
Reviewed by Michael baker
So I went to this gig with high hopes, my mate is in one of the bands and the others seemed promising from the minimal I had heard.
We opened with Thieves, although playing as Minerva. Although undoubtedly talented they did manage to leave me confused. It seemed a mish mash of styles, at one point we had hardcore reminiscient of Deaf Havana mixing with the pop punk of an early Panic!. I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense as I enjoyed the mix but it did make it hard to keep up as to where we were going with things. Any band that has the O2 Islington and the Barfly in its first few gigs deserves praise and I think the highest praise I can give is that I would gladly see them again to see if the mish mash of styles I noticed was a one off or a substantial part of their music.
They were swiftly followed by Red Kites. Now having listened to the band more since this gig I can say that they are very good and that their folk rock interests me, therefore I will be keeping an eye out for them. However, on this night, the main focus seemed to be on manufacturing an atmosphere rather than playing the music. If they keep this out of their performances in future they will do fine.
East Kent’s own City Lightz were second to last. In terms of an overall performance they were outstanding. Leading with their latest single, More Than a U in Us, they used this opportunity to showcase their talents. Having learnt from previous mistakes they only had one cover, Jamie T’s If You Got The Money. It was electric. Sheer brilliance on their part and it set everything up beautifully for their finishing double act of Breaking Bones and the unreleased Shades of Me.
The final act of the night was Give Me The Sun. This band have a great sound and on the night they definitely made the most of the final slot. Everyone got up close and listened whilst another band played which had full confidence in their set. The acoustics of O2 lent itself perfectly to their specific indie rock style.
