Orange Goblin - Barfly - Saturday 1st March 2008

Before launching into the review a couple of "thank you"s to the Barfly crew. First to the ever jovial fella on the door, nice to be welcomed back and recognised! Also to the soundman for the running order and Orange Goblin's setlist - cheers!

And so to the bands... kicking off the evening were the oddly named Musta Talvi. Credit has to go to the one guitarist who had one of those shows where anything that could go wrong did. Strings breaking, detuning in general and malfunctioning leads led to him ditching his Jackson and borrowing a replacement from the next band up. Despite all these distractions he carried on well and I applaud him for that. They are a young band who play with aggression and clearly enjoyed being on this stage. Difficult to pigeon-hole them as far as genres go, at times they were hardcore/metalcore and at others back to basics beefed-up rock and roll. They had a good following with them too. Overall I would say they were ok but without having any real defining qualities. Reasonable start.

Trust My Dishonour. Familiar looking guitar! Fair play to you for helping out. Played power rock with a tinge of stoner and sleaze topped off with trademark modern aggressive vocals. Again perfectly acceptable without setting the world on fire.

Two perfectly adequate bands got the show on the road without really grabbing your attention and making you think "must see them again." Nothing wrong with them just nothing exceptional either. So how would the headliners fare?

From the moment Orange Goblin launched into "Ballad Of Solomon Eagle" the crowd were theirs and during the next hour they could do no wrong. Hadn't heard too much of their material before the gig, but had heard they were a good live act and so it proved. Basically a very tight power/stoner trio with a crazed and beer loving lead singer who whipped up the crowd well. Good to see the Barfly fuller than any gig I'd been to here before which allowed for a good atmosphere and an energetic pit. For a three piece plus vocalist they have a very full sound even when the guitarist is soloing. Before revealing the full setlist I am going to enter the world of the strange. Couldn't work out what was bugging me during the first few tunes and then it hit me in an almost lightbulb moment. If you see them later on in the tour I hope the vocalist isn't wearing his black socks! Short of wearing sandals with white socks I can't think of anything that would suit him less. As usual Bill got a picture of them (at my request) so if you check out his gallery for the gig blame me! Weird thing for me to pick up on, but once I'd spotted them they became almost mesmerising! Anyway returning from the planet looney suppose I should run through the setlist! After the opener they played "Quincy The Pigboy", "Aquatic Fanatic", "Cities Of Frost", "Getting High On The..", "Nuclear Guru", "Your World Will Hate This", "Round Up The Horses", "Some You Win", "They Come Back" and finished with "Blue Snow". Back for three encores, "Man Who Invented Time", a blistering cover of Motorhead's "No Class" before "Scopionica" rounded things off.

All bands have to start somewhere and it's a thankless task trying to endear yourself to a crowd waiting for the main act; having said that what is with the modern trend of putting on not one but several supports? I saw the bill for The Sword at the Academy 2 later on in the month and they have three of them! Plugging new material I want to see them not three others. No disrespect to the first two bands tonight but I would far sooner have seen more from Orange Goblin's back catalogue rather than the hour they allocated themselves. Other than that an enjoyable evening and I will definitely see Orange Goblin again when they next tour.