Saturday 01/03/03 The Stands, The Burn @ Zanzibar, Liverpool

Funny thing happened on Saturday night. One minute I'm dodging rain and vomit on a mission to get to the Zanzibar on time, the next I'm sitting cross-legged in a field wearing a kaftan, having a conversation with a Vietnam vet about advances in prosthetic limb technology. Ahh the summer of love…we wanna be free to do what we wanna do, without getting hassle from the man. I'm right there, I swear it, and if there's any of that brown acid going around I'm not touching it. Wavy Davy says it's bad.

Actually I blame this on the Stands. Them and the projectionist, who's got a library of early Clapton and Hendrix footage flickering away at the side of the stage. Between them they've managed to conjure up an atmosphere so retro that slapping a girl's arse and telling her not to be shy would probably be considered a bit of fun. But if you dig the vibe, daddy-o, you'll probably love the tunes. The Stands' homage to the Byrds' close harmonies and picked Rickenbackers reveals an enviable talent for writing. From mellow opener 'She Speaks Of All These Things' to the melée of 'The way She Does', singer Howie Payne's voice sounds sweet as you like, cutting through the packed house like a hot knife through hash. Admirable for the performance, but also for summing up an era in eight songs and making it their own.

Blackburn quintet the Burn, whose psychedelic intro 'The Cove' is clearly meant to tickle the audience's bollocks a little before the big riffs start, have a healthy amount of home support in the venue. Not that they particularly need it. There's wall to wall appreciation for the intense intros and deft turns unveiled in the blues edged workouts that follow. The combination of delay-heavy guitars, ethereal vocals and the odd booty-shaking beat works better in some places than it does in others. 'Steel Kneel', in which the drummer batters his floor tom as if it called his mum a slag, hoofs along in an exhilarating fashion, while 'Sunstroke' resurrects the oft heard Eastern hippy lick with predictably dull results. Worth the wait though for those moments ('Devil's Workin'/'Drunken Fool') when they hit the sweet spot and their retrospective influences sound truly relevant.

Photos by Shelly Turner :: shelly@gigwise.com