Halo @ Royal Park Cellars
By BellaAfter the most stressful and unnerving day ever I was in need of some music, so off I race to RPC just in time to catch the catch the start of the All Star 69ers. I think I missed an intro bit they had on tape, because they did the same at the end, but I looked round the door as I was getting stamped in and saw - two socks. Stripy socks with eyes no less! There is a slightly larger than man height black screen with two holes in, with two stripy socks protruding from it, who were apparently singing "any dream will do.." (This is the point at which I pray the all stars are not a band consisting only of two stripy socks!) The rest of the band now appears (Thank God) very confident and bubbly along with new girl Emma wielding a tambourine. She looks a little stage struck at points, but her additional vocals worked well. They appear to be a very fun orientated band, the socks being a case in point, playing a pop/rock and roll type mix of songs. A lot of the songs tonight reminded me very strongly of a 60's mix tape I have, but with a slightly more modern feel. I also get the feeling that some of their lyrics and small sections of their songs have been "borrowed" from other songs - it was one such moment when I wished my friend Chris was there, purely because he appears to have an infinite memory of everything musical - he would have been able to tell me where the guitar parts and occasional lyrics were borrowed from - the artist, the song, and probably the album and the writer! It wasn't enough to make me think of them as a covers band, but enough to make me think I had heard bits of things before. The fun element returned in a big way to a song called Angels of Suburbia. Three friends came in with one of them dressed as a "dark" angel, with facemask etc and accompanied by two "light" lady angels wearing short denim skirts, high heels, All Star 69ers T-shirts, wings and wands. They invited everyone to dance, with a prize of their c.d. to the best dancer - only one lady took them up on their offer and danced around with the angels. It was a really light, entertaining, fun set that was played well. The band looked good, sounded good and kept us entertained all through their set, even ending it with (taped) adverts for - Future Socks!
Serafin were up next with a much rockier set. There seemed to be one or two problems with the mikes and later the bass, I wasn't impressed with the guy shouting at the sound engineer because of it. That difficulty aside (handled brilliantly, quickly and quietly by the crew) Serafin are a fairly average guitar based rock band. They had the spiky hair, the attitude and the power driven guitars. There didn't seem to be much about them that made them stand out from the rest of the guitar bands around these days. The second to last song of the set was the best of the lot and I forgot it the instant I got home. Its fast, power driven guitars with vocals that are fairly close to being spoken rather than sung, and periodically shouted. The bass is just a part of the song, rather than a feature and the melodies were kinda average. If you like this kind of thing (which I do, funnily enough) you will love these guys, they already seemed to have a section of the crowd dedicated to them, several of whom were singing along. I'll see them again no doubt as I really enjoyed the set on the whole, but can't help wishing they had something a little more defining about them.
There is a fairly lengthy set change before Halo grace the stage. These guys look much younger than I thought they would. There seems to be a kind of universal uniform of silver chains, spiky jewellery, black t-shirts and spiky hair, with the lead singer sporting a dinky bleached blond mohican. Bearing their look in mind they were a lot tamer than I expected musically. Their singer has a very soft, warm gentle singing voice that got lost on occasion in amongst the power-laden guitars. They have a tangible stage presence with smiles all round at the audience when they were not doing the raw, rock leaping around, madness that intersperses some of the tracks. I really enjoyed the "ballad" of the evening - Perfectly still - gentle rhythms and melody with swelling vocals. They followed this with their new single (to be released on 13/05/02) Sanctimonious. It a huge power hungry song, that made the crowd sit up and pay attention, I can see why they chose it as the single. I also loved the one after it (can't remember the name of the song) sung with low, sweet, sexy, slightly breathy vocals, gentle melodic start that builds and builds only to drop for a moment back to the gentleness of the start before it ends. Very cool. I enjoyed Halo a lot, but wish I had some kind volume control for the singer... I can but dream.
