Visa @ Fenton
By Dave SugdenQuite an eventful Saturday evening in the end. Firstly, I chatted away to Aeon prior to the Juno-2 gig at Royal Park Cellars - the interview should appear on the site in the next week or so - and then I bumped into Bella. After talking to her for a short while, over came Tom from Juno-2, who's a very nice guy. And then finally, I walked over to The Fenton to watch Visa.
In a very cold venue, first up was Dave Cooke, former front man of Landspeed Loungers and now playing along with his solo project Being 747. Unfortunately, I had to spend most of his set downstairs in the bar (no, not drinking!) - but I did catch the last song, and glimpses of the one before it. Quite impressive from what I saw, there's a lot going on in both the vocals and the guitar (acoustic). The last track reminded me a little of "Mrs Robinson" in its style.
Next to take to the stage were a band who'd travelled all of the way from Eastbourne, The Amazing Pilots. To say I was impressed with this band is an understatement. A retro, mellow outfit they played with some clean, imaginative riffs, a funky bass line and a typically retro organ. These lads are Irish and are very, very humorous; we chatted away at the end, discussing topics such as "Why they don't ever get a mosh pit" (if you'd seen them, you'd understand how daft this sounds). They also seem to have a good outlook on their music and it seems on life in general. Their set prompted me to buy their mini-album too, it's just a shame they aren't in "our scene", as I'm sure most of you would enjoy watching them. The fifty or so Visa fans appeared to enjoy it too - I even saw some dancing in the Fenton! Strange things happen on cold nights.
Finally and later than expected on came Visa. A shortened set didn't seem to deter them as they kicked out some serious alternative rock sounds. It sounds strange to say it, but despite their own guitar problems - "Our guitars are all in tune ... but we have three different tuners" is their explanation as to why they need to spend a minute or so tuning in to each other - their sound was much, much clearer than when they played the Rocket Venue a month or so ago. That day it was fairly muddled, a problem the band said they experienced on stage too, but tonight you could hear each song for all it was worth. It's a pity that "Starts in the Morning" had to be cut from the set, but they more than made up for it with a mid-set trio punk blast of "Van", "Teeth" and "Wow Signal". Wow. I hope the Rocket get the Visa sound sorted next Saturday, it'd be nice if they can impress a few more people because these are talented lads.
