Saturday 22/10/05 Nine Black Alps, Giant Drag @ Carling Academy 2, Liverpool

The music industry is obsessed with labelling new bands as the next ‘so and so’, tonight is no exception. Giant Drag are apparently the next White Stripes according to the feverish reports of those in the know, they are not. The only link is the fact they’re a duo featuring a man and a women, there the similarities end. As they come before us they’re diminutive figures with front woman Annie Hardy addressing the audience with a mouse like voice that is barely audible above the chattering masses.

However, don’t be fooled by Hardy’s little girl lost appearance because as the set reveals she is the bearer of a razor sharp wit, mesmerising sensuality, searing voice and the main driving force of Giant Drag. Starting off with ‘You **** Like Your Dad’, as you can imagine it got a few laughs, they plough through a dirge of melodic grunge on songs such as ‘You’re Full Of Shit (Check My Sweet Riffs)’ and closer ‘Swan Song’ bringing us something akin to Dinosaur Jr covering My Bloody Valentine with Micah Calabrese bashing away a cacophony on the drums and Hardy screeching across crunching riffs.

In between each song Hardy gives us small peak into her weird and wonderful mind divulging little snippets such as the fact that next single ‘Kevin Is Gay’, a hook heavy kooky ballad, is about a boyfriend she had when she was eight. Some in the audience don’t quite know what to make of these short soliloquies and heckle back shouting “Taxi!” but they are soon put back in their place by Hardy in typical laconic fashion.

Playing a twenty five minute set Giant Drag are tonight more intriguing rather than electrifying but they give you the feeling there‘ll be a lot more come. Intelligent and crushingly snide, welcome to Annie Hardy’s world - a place we’ll all want to be sometime in the future.

Nine Black Alps on the other hand are here and now, tonight they play with a new confidence - even Sam Forrest seems to feel more comfortable in the spotlight and the boisterous crowd can’t wait for them to unleash their feast of crashing grunge anthems. And boy do they deliver adding a taut friction that electrifies the venue to the raw power that they’ve always had.

Its all there as they explode through song after song from debut album ‘Everything Is’ like there is no tomorrow. Forrest growls and screams while throwing himself round the stage like a rag doll, his long tresses flail in his wake. They career from full on ear drum destroying, brain mashing rackets such as ‘Not Everyone’ and ‘Shot Down’ to the more melodic and  subtle ‘Over The Ocean’ and ‘Unsatisfied’. They even throw in a beautiful acoustic rendition of ‘Intermission’ for good measure.

The sweaty, intimate nature of the venue only adds to the pure force of the performance, the band are close enough to the audience to touch as they chant back line after line and heave from side to side. As the set draws to a close Forrest promises one more song - “Just for you Liverpool” (Sam, we bet you say that to all the cities) -  and they launch into an uncompromising version of breakout track ‘Cosmopolitan’.

Nine Black Alps promised much, in the past they may have suffered from too much hype too soon, tonight they show us why they are so deserving of our praise and a whole lot more.