Metal Night and Jayne swoons
The Green Baize, Weston Super Mare.
Three bands
Ø Metal Gods
Ø Made to Waste
Ø Angel Falls
DJ Ghost, Alex and I decided that another Weston Gig was in order ad so took a trip back down to one of our favourite venues, the Green Baize in Weston. Of the three bands on offer, one was one we knew and loved and the other two were an unknown commodity that interested us. Originally, another of our favourite bands had been booked, but we will come to that later.
We walked into the venue just in time to catch Made to Waste sound checking and even when just warming up and checking the levels they sound absolutely amazing. Clever bunch of buggers that they are. This was followed by Metal Gods sound checking with an Iron Maiden cover that I recognised immediately. Once again the fabulous Nester was on sound desk duties and the sound coming from the stage was as always crisp, clear and perfect. That boy is good. Also worth noting is that Nester is also in a covers band called Priest Unleashed and I am sure that you can guess who they love most in the world! We saw them at Scrumpstock earlier this year and was most impressed, so do check them out.
One of the nice things about doing these reviews is that the bands have got to know us here at Biker Rock Radio a little, but when some of these young bands see us, wave, smile or even give me a hug, a little part of me melts and gets all star struck. Yes Alex, I mean you!
Ø Metal Gods
Finally the first band were ready and began their set with a cover of Judas Priest’s Hell Bent for Leather. This is a song that almost any Priest fan will know well and hearing a covers band play it is a strange thing. The song was played really very well, but is there really anyone who can scream like Rob Halford? His voice is so distinctive that anyone who tries is going to have a hard job to cover his style. Wrathchild by Iron Maiden was competent and interesting and I was starting to see a pattern here. The tight black jeans, the white basket ball sneakers and the big hair all shouted a very clear message. However the lead man clearly knows this and announced to an amused crowd, that their influences were clearly in the 1980s. Is that such a bad thing? Really no, when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal started, I was a young child, but I have memories of amazing music and here I was seeing it performed live. However, they did perform two songs that your scribe really did not enjoy even slightly. Any band who perform covers of the songs of the band The Little Angels deserve to have their legs slapped! The songs were played adequately well, but I remember seeing Toby Jepson perform the songs live myself having been dragged along to a gig of theirs and I hated them. This was an almost unforgivable crime against music as far as I was concerned. I could have forgiven those two songs, but covering the Beasty Boys was one too many for me and I will admit that I started to get excited about the next band. Fortunately for me, Metal Gods were coming to the end of their set and they decided to end on a classic, one of the best songs ever to come from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Iron Maiden’s Phantom of the Opera. I had the first Iron Maiden on vinyl and Phantom of the Opera is the final track on side one and what a track it is, to cover it though is a real feat of musicianship. I wish that I could report to you that they mastered the track that to this day is a firm favourite of both Iron Maiden and their fans, but sadly they lack the second guitarist and Paul DiAnno’s vitriolic vocal screech. This is not to say that it was played badly, but it was just not played to the standard that you hear when you see Maiden live and this is the difficulty for any covers band.
What these guys are is an excellent pub band, what they do is play great Pub Rock, you can sing along and you can enjoy the music of your favourite bands, but that is what it is. When you hire a band like this, there is no denying that you are getting a fun band, but the limitation is that they are going to sound like your favourite bands, but they won’t be at that same standard and you must not judge them too harshly for that.
Ø Made to Waste
Next came the reason why I was at the venue on that night, Made to Waste. Now I am sure that by now you know that I love this band on an almost intimate level. One thing I am yet to see by this band is a poor show and this gig could well have been that with the things that went against them. Yet with a level of professional pride and an absolute belief in what they do, they rocked so hard I am surprised that the Earth did not crack open and vomit lava upon the stage.
AS they mounted the stage I felt my heart shudder because I knew that they were going to be epic, yet when they had technical issues with the Bass amp, their humour shone through once again. Part of me felt for Bassist Snyffs as once again vocalist and guitarist Alex teased him gently. John the guitarist and Jake the drummer were ready to blast, while Snyffs sorted his kit. Then the brutality began and the universe cracked open pouring forth the deluge of thrash that you would expect from bands considerably older and much better paid than these lads. For me, Made to Waste are a reason why we must support the local scene and I will continue to bang on about this. Local talent this good deserves support. Their songs are all original, they perform with a vibrancy that is uplifting even though they play the sort of metal that crushes you with the heaviness of it. I can no longer claim to be impartial. I am now a fan of this band and I am not ashamed. Made to Waste are one day going to be huge and when they are I will be proud in saying that I saw them when they were young.
Proof of their talent came when
they asked the audience for their favourite Made to Waste track. Good friend of
Biker Rock Radio, Beth, immediately shouted out her favourite track which the
boys pounced on and played with the urgency of a tornado destroying
Some bands would give up, some keep going, but only very few have the cahoonies to just get heavier. Alex asked the audience if there was anyone who could rapidly tune a guitar for him and just as we though that no one could, up stepped a kind and gentle soul to do the job. However it was at that moment that they discovered some damage to their amplifier and they had to concede to losing one guitar.
A new level of maniacal glee entered the crowd as Alex took the microphone from the stand and jumped into the crowd. The new song was introduced and it blasted with the thunder of a planet being destroyed. You would not think that this was the first time that they had played it live to a crowd, which is what we were proudly told. Once again Made to Waste wipe the floor with every other band playing in the region that night. What makes this band so perfect is the way they interact with each other, what it is like when they play, is that they have one nervous system, they can anticipate each other so well and this only comes from hard work and dedicated practice. When a mosh pit starts on the dance floor, your damaged scribe was forced to run for cover or risk being flattened by metal heads in full good natured flow. Again, Made to Waste were jaw droppingly brilliant with enough charisma to fill an Olympic pool. The most amusing part of the show though came when a cheese cake was produced and placed upon the dance floor. The challenge was set and on the count of four, the crowd dived for it. I was left in fits of laughter. Then from under the mass of bodies came the triumphant hand that would hold aloft the cheese cake of doom. Can you imagine Slayer doing this? No, neither can I and it is to their loss.
Made to Waste have a new EP available called Bones to the Cause and your scribe was able to grab a copy from the band, but only after I begged them all to sign it for me. So with a happy heart I must thank Alex, John, Jake and Snyffs, not only for a great gig but also for not minding that a creepy old lady asked them to sign her album! Once I got home I played the album and once more that night my world was rocked by Made to Waste. Do check them out and buy their EP, you really wont regret it.
Now events like these do not just happen by them selves, they take careful planning and preparation. They take the strength of will that comes from some one knowing that they can pull in a crowd and at this gig forty people came, including us from Biker Rock Radio. A room like that can hold easily a hundred people, maybe even double that. But on this night there were forty of us there to support the local bands. I had a chat with Jamie the event organiser and owner of New Revolution Events and asked him some difficult questions.
This was the first event for New Revolutions in Weston Super Mare and they intend to have others to come, they are especially keen to support local venues such as the fabulous Green Baize and to encourage more people out from the dark places in which they hide. They are back in Weston again next May when they present a day long event called Cupid Stunt, so expect to see more of them. What they plan to offer at such events is good bands and an event photographer as standard, I found all of this out while trying to interview Jamie while sat on the extremely cold stairwell in the Green Baize. To his credit, he was surprisingly patient when my PDA crashed and froze solid, when it suddenly stopped accepting text and when finally it just gave up and stopped working altogether. I did manage to ask one question though, what happened to Throne of Demise. Sadly it seems that a disagreement arose between New Revolutions and Throne of Demise’s Management that prevented them from closing the deal. When interviewed, both sides of the arguement stated that this was due to difficulties over the financial side of things and it seems that the dispute left both sides unhappy. This is such a shame because Throne of Demise are an excellent band and deserve to seen.
Ø Angel Falls
Sadly due to my conversation with Jamie I missed the start of Angel Falls set, however I could hear it quite clearly from the stairwell and they were again a covers band playing a set of Metallica tracks. If you like Metallica, then this is the band for you. Jamie had expressly chosen this band as the head line or his opening event in Weston and he was very proud to have them play.
Once again a covers band can be hit or miss, a good one will get you singing along and a bad one will have you heading for the beer garden or worse still the way out! Angel Falls were Metal Gods with a few extra members, so the musicianship was going to be good and the vocals did sound very similar to James Hetfield, but as the way with these things the comparison to the original is always going to be made, whether you do it consciously or not. As much as I wanted to like this band, that comparison just kept coming. When a band like Metallica play their song, they know it so intimately that can play it like we breath air. It comes naturally to them, it is after all written in their style. When a covers band try to reproduce that sound, you can feel the subtle shift in style. It may well be superbly practiced, but it is still a copy. What I witnessed from Angel Falls was brilliantly well played and fabulously sang karaoke. This may sound unfair, but it is not meant to be unkind.
The musicianship of Angel Falls cannot be judged as anything other than competent, watching solos performed with practiced ease and seeing the guitarists coming together while they played reminded me of seeing two boys comparing genitals. A hilarious if slightly undignified comparison I will admit. The crowd gathered were different to those that had danced to Made to Waste, these were older and more relaxed, there was more sitting than moshing and yet every one there was clearly enjoying the show. I heard the lead singer welcoming the crowd, even those who enjoyed the raw screams of the previous band and he was gracious and complementary about a musical style he was aware of but did not fully enjoy.
The set played by Angel Falls was professional and tight, yet when it is a tribute to a band as precious to our hearts as Metallica it is really hard to be impartial. So what I will say is this, If you cannot see Metallica, then see the next best thing and see Angel Falls. It wont be the same, but you will enjoy it none the less.
Tags: "made to waste" "green baize" "thrash metal" "death metal" "cover bands"
