Thursday 06/12/02 Iconoclast, 10,000 Things, The Skylarks @ Barfly, Liverpool

Local boys Iconoclast have been doing a fair amount of gigging recently and it seems to have paid off. They're a tight outfit and will someday soon write better songs than the ones they're playing here tonight. It's only a matter of time I think, before they develop their sound and become a really good band.

Another band with a lot of potential are 10,000 Things, a bundle of raw, nervous energy. They sound and look a bit like The Rolling Stones and have a Space Cadet playing bongos. 'This is the first time we've been outside of Yorkshire' the singer says, and his band does look a little nervous. You're not sure whether his hair is covering his face because he thinks that it looks cool or because he's scared of looking at the audience. Either way, 10,000 Things grow more confident as their set progresses spurred on by all the drunken construction workers here to see The Skylarks.

Alrighty-then. The Skylarks are what we here at gigwise would officially term a 'Cavern Band,' and I for one normally operate a ruthless policy of pretending that bands such as these do not exist. However, it would not be fair if I were to omit the fact that The Skylarks are probably the best of all the pub-rock acts that my fair city continues to produce. The Skylarks are shamefully derivative. At one point I shut my eyes and can clearly hear Ocean Colour Scene (The Skylarks of course probably think that they sound more like The Who) Fair play to them though - They bring almost 200 people into The Barfly to see them, which is something that most unsigned bands in this city never manage. (Are they all too cool to invite their family and friends to gigs? Who knows) But lets not kid ourselves here, unless The Skylarks undergo a musical renaissance the equivalent of being visited by Jesus riding a Les Paul shaped Harley Davidson sound-tracked by The Pixies' tune 'Wave of Mutilation,' then they are best advised to stick to playing in Mathew Street. It's where they belong you see.