Cambridge Band Comp - Heat 2

So I've got back from the band comp heat 2, burnt two fingers and am writing this with the remaining eight.

Heat 2 saw a varied bunch of bands and a nice atmosphere. In chronological order, these were...

The Running Mayfairs played some nice choppy, slightly prog rock with a nice dose of breaks and changes. They worked really well together, and are developing something quite interesting. It did feel a bit empty, a sketchpad, like the songs weren't quite finished, that there was something really nice underneath it all that they haven't quite found yet. If they'd entered in a year or so they'd be real contenders. However, this year, they didn't really seem that up for it.

The Scene is Dead know how they sound, which is a really good quality to have. Their sound is tight and warm, and they have one of the best male vocals I've seen in the area. They play modern Rock. That's what they do, and they do it well. The trouble is, it's so very safe and samey. They'll show glimpses of doing something a bit different, but soon it slipped back in to the normal pattern. It makes their choice of name seem quite ironic really, as I'm sure if there is a scene, they'll fit very squarely in it.

Villa Savoye are an energetic three piece playing emo tinged rock and having a lot of fun doing it. Again there's a feeling that these guys haven't really found their sound yet. They suffered slightly from the quiet guitar bits being so quiet that I couldn't hear them, and the singer's voice would just vanish when he wasn't singing high, a problem that The Scene Is Dead's singer avoids so well.

The Scissors were for me, the band with the best songs of the heat. Sounding a bit like the Doors, and the Smiths, with a touch of The Darts Club... The songs are well crafted, and not like something I've heard much of. Led by strong male vocal. They wanted to win, which was nice. It sounded like the drummer was having a bit of a shocker, and it wasn't always the tightest, but it was immersive none-the-less.

In the end, The Scissors won it by a point over Villa Savoye. A close one this, one that seemed to split the judges a bit...

Article posted by Brad Spreadsheet on Wednesday 22nd April 2009, 00:04:00

Back to the News board