The Violets are three lads hailing from Cheltenham who look like The Stone Roses and sound a bit like an AC/DC'd up version of The Jam. Currently on tour around the UK they feel compelled to remind a small, disinterested Barfly audience that they've travelled over 200 miles to be here. When a further plea for the crowd to show some signs of life falls on deaf ears, The Violets get to work and gee-tar licks and scissor kicks are the order of the day. An old man next to me says "I can't understand what they're singing about" and I nod sagely, thinking that he might actually have a point.
There are some beautiful sounds coming from the lead singer/guitarists Rickenbacker (although using the same FX pedal for every song is a bad idea boys)and the songs themselves are pretty good. The Violets have impressed me tonight, a few more tours and a new wardrobe could well see them making a name for themselves.
Unlike The Violets, Liverpool band Gem could play more shows than Bob Dylan and it still wouldn't turn them into contenders. Gem are the Liverpool band that we have all seen a hundred times. (Admittedly, usually at the Mathew Street Festival and called The Shining Revolution or something like that...) They are obviously inspired by OCS and Oasis but midway through their set throw in a song that appears to have had off with Nirvanas' 'Heart Shaped Box' almost in its entireity.
The low point of Gems' set however is an "improvised" jam (that I personally suspect was meticulously rehearsed for months beforehand) It so blatantly wants to be the outro of 'I Am the Resurection' that all I can do is stare at my feet and play with my phone. I don't enjoy savaging bands who obviously care so much about the music they play but as Gigwise editor Andy said to me last week, you can forgive these groups when they're teenagers but when they're in their mid-twenties they really ought to know better.
There are some beautiful sounds coming from the lead singer/guitarists Rickenbacker (although using the same FX pedal for every song is a bad idea boys)and the songs themselves are pretty good. The Violets have impressed me tonight, a few more tours and a new wardrobe could well see them making a name for themselves.
Unlike The Violets, Liverpool band Gem could play more shows than Bob Dylan and it still wouldn't turn them into contenders. Gem are the Liverpool band that we have all seen a hundred times. (Admittedly, usually at the Mathew Street Festival and called The Shining Revolution or something like that...) They are obviously inspired by OCS and Oasis but midway through their set throw in a song that appears to have had off with Nirvanas' 'Heart Shaped Box' almost in its entireity.
The low point of Gems' set however is an "improvised" jam (that I personally suspect was meticulously rehearsed for months beforehand) It so blatantly wants to be the outro of 'I Am the Resurection' that all I can do is stare at my feet and play with my phone. I don't enjoy savaging bands who obviously care so much about the music they play but as Gigwise editor Andy said to me last week, you can forgive these groups when they're teenagers but when they're in their mid-twenties they really ought to know better.
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