Review:
'AMBERSHADES/KARMA DESTINATION/JADED'
'London,"Glasswerk"@The Garage, 4th August 2004'
- Genre: 'Rock'
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Our Rating:
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After the rain comes the heat. London was flooded to a standstill last night, not that you could tell tonight as we venture onto the tube in the midst of a heat wave. Typically, Upstairs at the Garage offers no relief from the stifling atmosphere so we hand ourselves over to the music once more in the hope that the four bands playing tonight can at least take our mind off of it.
CITIZEN REX make a good fist of things with their melodic rock. A four piece, they are tight but lack personality both musically and in terms of stage presence. They’re not bad by any stretch of the imagination but they’re nothing special either. It’s obviously early days and to their credit they finish on a high. If the rest of the songs could match the urgency of their finale they might well be onto something.
It is easy to slag off bands but particularly at this level it can seem unnecessarily cruel. If a group have invested their time and money to follow their dreams then who are we to piss on those dreams? On the other hand JADED are really shit. We should have known when we saw the lead guitarists shiny new space age guitar. Even letting this pass us by we are then subjected to his egotistical fret wankery wherein he won’t play two notes if 32 will suffice.
Singer AJ (fit but my gosh don’t you know it) goes for the ice maiden approach to lead vocals. Great if you have the talent / looks / charisma of Debbie Harry, sad if your voice is nondescript and you’re playing in front of 30 people. Also if you have to wear a T-shirt that says ‘Rock Chick’ chances are you’re not. Really their music is so tawdry it is beyond description. When guitarist Ed finishes the gig by playing a guitar solo with the guitar behind his head, I thought I was going to give myself a hernia laughing. Think I’m being harsh? Check out their website (www.jadedmusic.co.uk) and tell me if I’m wrong.
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Thank God for KARMA DESTINATION. Quite simply they blew everyone else off the stage by some distance tonight. Hailing from Manchester (and surrounding area) they’re a five piece with a big, big sound. Walls of guitar are anchored down with some seriously funky beats and front man Davy C has one hell of a voice going on. Like The Music without the dancier elements or the Doves at their most muscular they held the attention with an abundance of charisma and presence. As individuals they were understated, as a collective they shook the room from it’s complacency and showed the other bands how it’s done. A notch above.
So how do AMBERSHADES follow that? The simple answer is they don’t. Their first two singles created quite a stir around W&H towers but on tonight's evidence it is difficult to see why. Being lumbered with a murky sound doesn’t help, especially if your stock in trade is poppy melodies. A couple of their songs shine but the rest of their material came across as a little patchy and despite their best efforts they never really take off tonight.
They certainly put their all into their performance and there are some nice touches such as the jangly guitar lines and some excellent moments where the piano takes off. It’s tempting to think we caught them on a bad night and that they are being unfairly compared to the smack in the gob that was Karma Destination. There was certainly enough to tempt us back and give them another try.
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author: Mike Campbell/ Photos: Ben Broomfield
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READERS COMMENTS
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------------- Author: Un-biased_Review
18 November 2004
Ah, Mike, its great to see such a professional, informative review in these days of cynicism and NME style bitterness. I especially thought your piece on Jaded was extremely useful. In fact, your review style was so eloquent, for a moment i thought i was reading afore-said magazine.
------------- Author: Un-biased_Review
18 November 2004
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Ambershades
Karma Destination
Jaded
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