Outstandifold and the Wettygrippers - Bakers - 26/01/13 (Kilmarnock)

Long time reader, first time contributor, so go easy on me.

I'm doing this for a friend - let's call him Willie Bolland, as that's his name – because he told me he was supposed to review the gig, but then he got drunk and went home long before the show started.

He didn't even make it to the doors opening.

A full scale weekend on the lash is now apparently something that he used to do because after a few pints on the Saturday afternoon he was finished.

A casualty of the post lunch bevvy.

By the time The Aboriginals walked onto the stage in Bakers I expect that Willie was either in the land of nod, or watching reruns of Coronation Street with his elderly mother who he still lives with.

He will regret that because he missed a fantastic wee local band.

Getting the ball rolling with a very impressive cover of the Arctic Monkeys 'you look good on the dance floor' that they managed to fill with all the youthful sarcasm that the song deserves was a good start, and while their own material that followed it wasn't quite up there at the same level of quality it wasn't far off it either.

Not far at all, and snapping at the heels of a band like the Arctic Monkeys isn't a bad place to be.

Out of a run of young local bands that I have seen over the previous six months it is these lads who are standing out as being the ones to watch.

There's some second hand post punk thrashing going on that will be picked up from them listening to the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand I suppose rather than some of the older acts, but then there's also some of the twist that Oasis brought to a more traditional rock attitude that most bands can't seem to avoid any more that gives the whole sound a lot more accessibility to it.

Praise has to be forwarded to the bands front man who carries himself like a rock star.

This attitude, along with a good voice, is the main difference between what The Aboriginals are doing and what their peers are getting up to.

There's no apparent discomfort on stage and it seems obvious that when he steps onto it that he claims it as his own.

Best young band that I have seen in a while.

The Longhorns aren't a young band, and that's obvious as they know exactly what they are doing on stage.

It's a hand in glove performance that only comes from laying down the music over a long period of time with the same people surrounding you.

Each of them know exactly what they should be doing, and when they should be doing it.

A friend said that they hadn't played for about a year, but you wouldn't be able to tell.

The music itself could be roughly claimed to be classic rock.

Not heavy rock, but classic rock.

The sort of sixties rock that delved into RnB and spawned the short lived pub rock scene before delivering punk and then a second wave of mod bands.

It's all there in what they are playing and while that might seem like a big messy pot of influences it's not.

It all makes complete sense and when I was told that this may have been their last gig my heart sunk.

Good bands like this should never retire.

They should keep popping up every once in a while to show the younger guns how it should be done.

They are really everything a good band should be.

Sonic Templars have been taking one confident step forward after another for a while now and all the hard work is paying of.

Very often I've thought that locally there is always one band who will drop the ball in a line up and my attention starts to wonder, but this was by this point three on three as they were hitting it hard.

Plenty of referencing was firing about the company I was in.

Muse got name checked as did Radiohead, but equally so did Blur, Jeff Buckley and some bands from much further back who are described as being Brit legends.

Once again there's a huge pot pourri of influences in display, but again there's nothing jarring about how they are all mixed together to promote what the band are wanting to get out there.

It is very easy to imagine them on a much larger stage in front of an enormous audience.

Club and pub environments are far too restricting for them.

What they play needs a great deal of room to breath in and walls are just a restrictive force holding it all contained in far too tightly.

Put Sonic Templars on before a band like Muse in Wembley and five minutes after them exiting the stage all their merch would be gone and their fan base would have multiplied by a ridiculous amount.

They have a co headlining gig coming up soon with Stonehouse Violets in Glasgow that Mainy from this blog is hosting and I'm not missing it.

The chance to see a full set from them rather than a limited support slot is one that I will recommend to all and sundry.

The headline act of the night is already a favourite of mine, and while some bands start off very seriously, but you can't help but see them as a joke, they are working arse from elbow and started off as a joke between mates and ended up through the quality of the musicianship being a band you can laugh with rather than at.

Take an old punk and an equally old fella who fancied himself as a Scottish Bono at one time, add in a youngish glam rocker who is hanging onto an androgynous Motley Crue fixation, and bolster the band with a dreadlocked bassist who may have took a wrong turning on his way to Bloodstock and a young singer/songwriter on drums and what you get is Outstandifold and the Wettygrippers.

These are five individuals who should never be allowed in a room together, but what sweet music they make.

Nothing should work, but everything does.

They are a rock band in every sense of the word.

Rock solid, rock hard and a bit of Rock Hudson to.

They are actually so tight that that they are water tight, and it's rumoured that double glazing companies are looking to sign them up as the next generation of all weather sealant.

The whole joke aspect of them is very obviously only skin deep.

They are far removed from being a parody band and if you removed the visual aspect of them and the in set laughs what you are left with is a very serious sound indeed.

As a hobby band of a sort they are seriously kicking the arses of those who see their band as a career option.

The forthcoming debut album that will be heard without the humour layered over it will be a surprise I expect.

John Kerr

Dirty Edition - The Longhorns, Roadway, Acrylic Iqon, Dirty Angel, The Empathy, The Mighty Kung Fu - 10/02/12 (Kilmarnock)

Where to begin?
Maybe I could be a bit of a contrary bastard and start at the end and work my way back to the start.
Yeah. That sounds right up my street
So anyway we left as Roadway started into what must have been their third song.
By that point of the evening it was creeping ever closer to the end of what had been a very long day.
I would have liked to have hung about a bit, but my bed was calling me, and no matter how good the band was, and they were good, I was reaching the stage where my feet were aching and the small of my back had taken out a fatwa on the rest of my body.
The young guy singing was hitting all the right buttons though.
If exhaustion wasn't weighing down on me I would have probably made more of an effort to make it to the last note as he's got the cocky rock front man swagger going on that I like
It's not just the impressive vocals that carry the band though.
The guitar work is equally as impressive, and the keyboards work well within the framework of the songs, but I'm not sure if the world really wants a band like this any more.
If Whitesnake where Israel and Deep Purple were Palestine then Roadway are the Gazza Strip.
They're occupying that land between the two, and while they sound great, it still might not be a place people want to visit.
It's not like they were adding a modern twist to the style of rock music they play that would lead people to say that they have some current relevance.
There's maybe a smidgeon of a grunge influence, but in the main they gave the impression of a band suspended in amber.
The Mighty Kung Fu finished their last ever gig to rapturous applause, wolf whistles and probably a tear or two.
Not bad for a local band calling it a day after eight years.
Playing funky rock in Ayrshire was always going to be a bit of an uphill struggle, but they managed to carve themselves a credible niche, and although the band are now on the path to being a memory their final performance was something that their fans will no doubt cherish as they went out on a well deserved high to what was the biggest crowd of the evening.
The Longhorns seem to make random hit and run appearances since they got back together after seventeen years of a lay off and I haven't managed to see any of them.
In fact it's quite possible that I haven't seen them in twenty years.
Not that it felt like that.
Once they fired into their set the years just slipped away and it could have been yesterday.
There's no hint of anyone considering this a nostalgia trip with everything sounding as if it could have been written in the last few weeks.
In fact one of them that had a nice bit of a nod to the Spanish Stroll of Willy Deville and may we have just been written in the last few days.
The band were tight, on form and as relevant now as they ever were.
There was one problem though. Where were the Killie faithful who usually come out to see them?
Ahhhhh. The calm before the storm.
A few friends, family and random punters like myself hang about and watch The Empathy who are on before The Longhorns come on.
Virtually everyone vanished to the bar downstairs, or outside for a fag after Dirty Angel played and left the four piece struggling to connect with an audience.
I was a bit rude.
Totally understandable if they sucked like a Dyson turned up to eleven, but they didn't.
I quite liked them.
There's nothing that screams at you 'look at me' but it's equally there's nothing on display to have you running to the hills covering your ears either.
In fact the Abba cover rocked big balls and anyone who missed it should be kicking themselves now.
It was always going to be difficult to follow Dirty Angels, but they made an admirable job of it and it's a shame more people didn't manage to make the effort to watch them.
Is the roof on?
No honestly is it?
Someone better check as it could have been blown clean off
Dirty Angel finished as they started.
They came, they drank, they fucked about and then they left, or more accurately they left everyone with smiles on their faces.
Imagine Jack Back in School of Rock and then scratch out the R and replace it with a C.
It's the School of Cock......and rock.
They were feckin hilariously entertaining.
From the classic fretboard masturbation to the iconic cum face guitar solo they nailed it, and that was just Dudge.
The only thing missing was spandex, loads and loads of spandex, but we can forgive them for this......this time.
It was the perfect balance of taking it seriously enough to get by, but not taking it too seriously that it impacted on the fun.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Acrylic Iqon are in the wrong place though.
Some music just doesn't suit a pub, but how do you jump past playing in them to get to the larger venues that your sound needs to live and breathe in.
There's hints of the eighties that float in by way of some tinkering on keys, a bit of a stadium rock sound and plenty more current influences weaving in and out of their songs.
As a start to the night it seems odd.
The position on the bill and the band actually playing in these surroundings just doesn't work, but that's not a bad criticism.
Hopefully soon I'll get the chance to see them play in a larger venue that suits what they do as there's plenty of interesting things going on in the Acrylic Iqon camp.
Excellent. The first night of the Dirty Editions dates that David Hanvey is bringing to Kilmarnock. I reckon it's going to be good.

Photos will follow.