Electric Animals / Murdoch / The Archives / Soldier The Rainbow, Digbeth Friday 18th January 2008

My first gig of the year and the second Kamikaze! of 2008. Shame I missed last weeks, it sounded like a blinder with the mighty Envy and Other Sins headlining what was, I have been reliably informed, the most popular one yet (they had to resort to turning people away at one stage...latecomers to future nights be warned!). Anyway on to this evenings entertainment. Most of tonights bands displayed a similar level of talent for good, solid, straight down the line slightly blues infused rock, kicking off with Soldier. I watched Slade in Flame last week. If you've not seen it it's a classic 1970's movie telling the story of a band called Flame (played by Slade). Based on Slade's real life rise to the top it reminded me of the rich rock history that bands like Soldier are part of. The Midlands always seems to have been a rock city. More than any other genre, it's the defult setting for a lot of Midlands groups. The ghost of Led Zepp clearly stalks the rehearsal rooms like...a big stalking thing. But then if you're going to take your inspiration from somewhere, Planty and Co ain't a bad place to start. Anyway, I digress, Soldier have class blues rock riffs a plenty and would be a much better bet for your gig dollar than any lame ass Oasis tour this year (I'm not sure if they are touring this year, maybe Liam could get in touch and let me know...?). Listening back to their My Space tracks they come across as more bluesier than last night, I think it's the harmonica, which didn't make much of an appearance last night. Shame. We want harmonica! Lots and lots of harmonica. Hell yeahhhhhh! (I tried to type a harmonica noise but failed at mmmmphooooweeeeweeewooowaaa...you try it).

Next up, The Archives. By the sounds of it this is a band that's been through the wars a bit. Their songwriter and lead guitarist upped and left just as they were starting out and it's taken them a while to regroup. By all accounts they've only been gigging with this line up for a few months, so tonight was a good performance.

Murdoch had a bit of a technical nightmare bless 'em. Some 'amp' related issues I think. It was a shame because when they were able to get going they started to build up a decent head of rocky pop steam. But then the technical gremlins struck again and it was all a bit stop/start. I'll go and see them again soon for a fairer assessment (check out 'Caught in the Spotlight' on their My Space page for a better idea of their sound).

Finally, and the best band on the night, Electric Animals. Their vocalist has a bit of the Steve Marriot about him, they've got a pretty decent keyboard player who adds that little extra to the sound (check out Just Plain Stupid for the proof) and despite having a stand in bassist (good job fella) they were as tight as a gnats chuff (and that's tight). They're still looking for a full time bass god by the way. Aspiring blues rocksters walk this way...