Yes. A three band bill, in Cellar
35 on a Saturday night in Aberdeen, this is what I’ve gleaned as my final,
lasting impression of the night. The bands were great, the crowd were psyched
and the beer was flowing, but most importantly: SEXY DRUMMERS.
Before we get on to the music let us have a quick look at them.
This is Ben from the Aberdeen
based CAAPS. He was probably the
sexiest drummer of the night, and that is coming from a heterosexual male,
writing about a gig that included a band with a rather attractive female on
drums. Ben has gorgeous blonde hair. He
is quite tall, has a decent build and has solid chops. He has a great style,
mixing classic boom-boom-pah boom-boom-pah with no nonsense snare rolls. No
frills, just beats more solid than dried lentils. His style, while less taxing
than a more complicated approach, arguably allows him to put more effort into
looking sexy, which perhaps contributed towards Ben winning the top spot on the
night. Throw in the fact that he shared
the lead vocal duties (and has a good voice), that sort of makes him the “front man”,
and everyone fancies the front man; especially one so blonde and dreamy. Sexy drummer.
Now we move onto the aforementioned sexy female drummer. Here
is a hilarious picture of her:
Her name is Claire, and she plays
in Glasgow based Suspire. She’s a
tiny wee blonde who rocks hard. Real hard. This is not the sexiest photo, perhaps, but I can vouch for her sexiness. Her chops were damn good too. She
had good groove and a solid technical style. Perhaps this makes it harder to
fully utilise one’s sexiness, as she was going at it pretty damn hard. Tidy.
Lastly, we had Stu McHardy of Aberdeen three-piece Min Diesel. Here he is:
Perhaps not the best photo, but I
can assure you I was very drunk by this point. Stu eventually had to acquiesce
to the audience’s request for “TAPS AFF”, forcing his sexiness index through
the roof. He took some gentle encouragement, but roughly five songs into the
set, Stu was showing us what he’s made of as he hulked out of his t-shirt,
showing off his skinny, rock-star-chic torso. I’m not entirely sure what that
means, I am just trying to give the guy a compliment. He got progressively
sexier in direct proportion with his sweatiness. His chops are pretty mean too. He
picks out strange beats at times. Where others might favour a more
straightforward beat to drive the song along, Stu picks out a more erratic –
and I’d say interesting – pattern that also drives along their dirty guitar pop
very effectively. Not the easiest style to look sexy with, but I imagine
Stu will have plenty of babes swooning over him anyway.
While I appreciated the selection
of drummers, as you may have garnered, there was a heck of a lot of good music
and good times going on at this gig. Backed hard. CAAPS opened the bill with great aplomb, busting out a good 40
minute set of varied rocking jams. Named CAAPS
because they “like wearing caps and they really like AA batteries” (I
paraphrase), they were a really fun band to watch. It was evident that they do
not take themselves seriously, which I always love seeing in a band. I do not
mean to suggest that they have not put time and effort into their songs, and
have good songs to show for it; I mean they want to be a fun, enjoyable band,
and play with grins on their faces, with an idyllic irreverence that reminded
me of The Presidents of the USA.
They opened the set with a song
about how they were playing the first song of their set, and had another song
about boobies. While I could not quote the lyrical content of their songs, they
did have a few numbers which had a more serious air around them, and throughout
their set they effectively navigated between sugary pop-rock to driving
stoner-rock and back again. I would definitely recommend
going to see this band on the 10th of October at The Tunnels, as they team up with Min Diesel once again in support of Dundee band
Fat Goth (who are very good as well).
Second on the bill was the
unknown quantity from Glasgow, Suspire. Another
3-piece, Suspire played rock music. I
cannot describe it any differently. With definite nods to more classic-rock
acts, they played a set of rock songs, laden in vocal harmony, that I thought
were fairly impressive. At no point did they blow me away, but I did not
dislike them either. They were all very competent musicians, and played their
songs well, but I just could not get excited about their music. I would recommend
them to an older audience, who like a no-nonsense approach to their rock, or to
a younger audience who are just getting into music. I feel there is possibly
something lost on a twenty-something audience who frequent gigs and want to get
excited about new music. That said, they were an
absolutely lovely bunch, and other onlookers seemed to really enjoy them. They appear
to be really ambitious with where they want their music too take them (albeit through
Sponsume, a concept I am not overly keen on), so good luck to them.
To end the night, we had
Aberdeen’s own Min Diesel. A
Mudhoney-esque trio of cool guys, they tore through a set of 10 songs to a very
appreciative audience who were all fairly drunk by this point. I am not saying
a good gig has to involve drunken people, but there was something about the
audience’s response to Min Diesel, the
camaraderie between spectators and performers, and the heckling, that was enhanced
by the relaxed atmosphere. Perhaps I should not go on too
much about The Min, as I am a huge
advocate of their brilliance anyway. I will try and keep it brief, at least. Min Diesel boast a large repertoire of smash hits. There is not one
song in their set that I felt was weaker than the other, and they exhibit all
of this in their good natured way. There is a lot to be said for
singer/guitarist Zippy’s song writing, as they always manage to keep it “fresh”
with every new song they add to their set. They are certainly a messy band, but
it totally works, as the songs themselves come from Zippy, with his fret-board
wandering licks and spat vocals. Back up a song-writing talent like this with a
solid and interesting rhythm section, and you have rock perfection. Seriously,
go and see this band sometime soon (on the 10th of October, with CAAPS
and Fat Goth!).
Overall, a very enjoyable night:
a good fifty to sixty strong in attendance (which feels like more in the
intimate proximity of Cellar 35) all of whom were enjoying the music. If you
have not been down to a show at Cellar 35 yet, I thoroughly recommend that you
do.
DJ
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