Wednesday 16/10/02 [Atonal], Junk Culture, Kid Galahad @ Barfly, Liverpool

Grungy rocksters [Atonal] seem to have come on in leaps and bounds over the last year. They've matured and gained bags of confidence and tightened their sound no end. It's no surprise that in a venue like the new Barfly - a fine-tuned incarnation of its original Masque Loft form - that they can finally find their feet, with the improved PA and swish "Barfly Liverpool" back drop.

Lead vocalist Ben is now the man about town, casually raising his eyebrow, like a Sean Connery stunt double as he croons his gruff melodies. It's about time, [Atonal] are the most ready they're ever gonna be. Their Silverchair-esque brand of heavy-fuzz-rock rips through the new PA stack and the small gathering of [Atonalites] lap up their bands new found self-confidence.

New song 'Cut You Down' features some majorly impressive fret wankery from their longhaired lead guitarist and is pretty good for it's first outing in the live auditorium. Stand out track 'Sugar Vapour' also features some sexy musicianship, the middle 8 being a particularly worthy couple of minutes; I almost gagged on my lager, twas that fantastic.

It's time for [Atonal] to take things to the next level. Their set is certainly something to sing about now.

I s'pose there's the element of rebelliousness in using the familiar symbolism of your parents generation and ripping it to pieces. After all aren't suits the uniforms of office workers, salesmen and trial defendants? Not rock gods, surely. Junk Culture's stylist has made the peculiar decision of putting them all in dark suits, not kitch retro-classics, but contemporary numbers that smack of uninspired half-arsed attempts at looking cool. - "John, we need a band image!" "Er, let's wear our suits from when Sharon got married." - For me, this look doesn't work at all, particularly because the lead singer begins the set wearing a skater-style sky blue woolly hat. At least once they all start rockin', the jackets and hat come off.

Anyway, just as I'm trying to get my head round their image, someone's dad clocks me and tells me this song is called 'Roots of Seperation' or something, I was thinking it was pub rock, but there you go. The Junkies plunder the back catalogue of eighties pop MOR without a hint of irony. In fact I've never believed a band to be more serious than these guys, accentuated by the lead vocalist gesticulating whenever he's not playing his guitar. He looks really aggro, like he's got a real ****ing problem.

That said, Junk Culture know their niche very well and perform a faultless set. Peter Gabriel would have killed for some of these songs and may still do, given half a chance. They're tight and well rehearsed and have a decent following who stand at the front of the stage shaking their booty. My advice, ditch the distracting suits and loosen up a bit, but I would say that wouldn't I? Seeing how the bassist was only celebrating his eighteenth birthday there's still time for these guys to get things right.

I've been expecting a lot from Kid Galahad, after hearing loads of good things about them and, I must admit, just liking their name. The boys didn't disappoint on this particular outing with their lo-fi blend of guitars, synths and DIY coolness.

The main man Ash twitches and spasms on the edge of the stage like some kind of retarded freak, staring inanely into the audience while half-rapping half-singing out his trippy prose. Early Beck is called to mind, when he was still in his more playful experimental phase, think somewhere along the lines of 'Loser' anglicised Betaband stylee and you won't go too far wrong.

There's plenty of change in pace to keep things interesting, hopping from full-on wig outs to more sensitive chilled out laid back expansive grooves. 'Runaway Buccaneer' sees them in an almost Brit-Pop moment, but not in a bad way you understand, the keyboards bringing the song to an end on a soft note, before they launch into the closing tune and Ash lets loose as Freddy Mercury, really giving it his all in a big vocal.

Kid Galahad are amazing, with more tunes than you can shake a shitty stick at. They've got the art of melody, performance and style all balanced out nicely. These boys rock, go see, please, go see if you get the chance.

Photos by Dave Evans