Radio WM Charity Gig - Robin 2 Bilston - Thursday 10th September 2009

A decent crowd had assembled to hear an acoustic and three electronic bands and hopefully a few quid was raised for the charity's coffers. The live broadcast part of the evening started at 10pm however the first act on were...

Groucott and Haynes. The son of a former ELO member and his sidekick played a set that seemed to last weeks – actually, on reflection, months. They were a curious choice of “warm up” act, and the ripples of polite applause were suitably damning. Apparently they play as a full acoustic band too, rather than a duo, maybe they're worth checking out? This set was boring to put it mildly.

Shortly after 10pm, and now live on air, Heresy took to the stage. I'd been invited to the gig by the band's manager, Dave, so my thanks for sorting the ticket go to him first. My reaction to their debut CD was a bit mixed, so I was intrigued to hear what they sounded like live. Well the good news fellas is that you played an enjoyable and entertaining set. Well supported, they warmed up with “Burn To Embers” but the set proper encompassed five songs. My main concern of their studio output concerned the vocals – live I needn't have worried, as Rob's pipes were more than up to the job, and he's a more than competent frontman too. They were confident enough to play two new songs which were both tight and fitted into the set well. By his own admission Dan didn't have his best night on the drums, but he was solid enough. James turned out to be their star turn, soloing fluidly and punching out the riffs. Highlight of the set was “Beyond All Reason”, a lengthy atmospheric guitar intro leading into a stylish track very reminiscent of Kamelot.

They acquitted themselves well although there's room for improvement; a few more gigs under their belts will put most of these right! The sections of individual songs need a little more polish and flow, and their collective stage presence could do with a little work. The keyboard player did nothing wrong musically, yet I kept wondering what they'd sound like with two guitarists? Or stick with what they've got and add a rhythm guitarist to underpin it all. Only problem then would be stage size with six of them competing for space... you can't win. Thanks again to Dave, and to all the band for the interesting discussions (and later texts) throughout the evening. All in all they were a more than worthy band to start the live broadcast off. Set list; “Intro”, “Resurrection”, “Trail The Fallen”, “Beyond All Reason”, “The Fatal Step”.

Thanks to the bizarre timings and lack of late night buses, I missed the headliners (Mexicolas) completely, and only caught the first ten minutes or so of the Gundogs set. What I saw wasn't that impressive to be honest, as they got predictable very quickly. Much as the two female guitarists looked the part, and could play, I found their take on Garbage/Elastica/Hole a bit “one trick pony”, but three and a bit songs isn't really enough to judge them fairly. No doubt I'll see them play a longer set soon.