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THE RUMBLE STRIPS/SIX NATION STATE/OLI 'N' CLIVE
Mr Kyps, Poole - 16 August 2007Curiosity is a new night at Poole music venue Mr Kyps , each is event is aimed at attracting new and exciting bands. Tonight's mouth-watering line up had the venue almost full by the time the first band came on.
Oli 'n' Clive was a nice laid back way to start the evening. A seven piece band playing all manner of instruments such as violins, ukuleles, bass, cornet, cello, guitar and drums creating a pleasing country /folk style of music which was very much enjoyed gauging by the applause the audience gave at the end of each song played. They ended their set sadly with a song apologising for being miserable, with lead singer Oli crying his way off stage.
After a few tunes from the DJ and a quick fifteen minute turned around, Six Nation State took to the stage, three guitarists , a bare foot bassist and a drummer. Right from the start this band showed they meant business with them all bounding around the stage to their opening number "Hysterical". Described as psychedelic gypsy ska punk on their flyer, I felt there was an middle eastern feel to some of their music with lots of sing-a-long chanting which the audience joined in gladly. Lead vocalist Gerry produced some powerful inspiring vocal moments in such songs as "So Long" and new single "We Could be Happy" with the rest of the band providing great backing. All in all a tremendous performance with loads of energy and passion showing great potential for the future.
The Rumble Strips come along with all the usual hype of having airplay on Radio 1 and filling the John Peel tent at Glastonbury to the max. With all this in mind I went along with an open attitude as it is always easy to be dragged along with the hype.
The band are a four piece playing a good mixture of instruments; trumpet saxophone, stand alone snare drum, bass, battered old great sounding acoustic guitar, piano and drums. Their sound is just fantastic. As they took the stage the combination of the trumpet and saxophone coupled with Charlie's vocals was just brilliant. A wall of sound hit the audience and as the delighted faces showed it was being very well appreciated.
The band really look the part and are hopefully heading to the top , I can see infectious music like this really getting under peoples skins. Songs like "Alarm Clock" , "Motorcycle" and their latest single "Boys and Girls in Love" really showed what this band is capable of. You could not really pigeon hole them as one type of music as they appears to be influenced from all angles; ska, 50's, punk and soul.
After approximately an hour of high energy music the band left the stage with the audience demanding more. Within minutes they were back with a brilliant version of the Thin Lizzy classic "The Boys are Back in Town" which went down an absolute storm.
All in all a great night for just £5 with three completely different bands all with their own original styles.
Dave Chinery