With: Rock Pirates, Sublime, She Creatures from Venus, Ulysses
Saturday 22nd September 2007 @ Trinity Centre

Last night was the Fortune Drive album launch party and what a night it was, a vast array of great bands marking this glorious event.

To kick off the night in style were the tremendous Rock Pirates. Fusing the sounds of AC/DC and Motley Crue, creating some good ol’ fashioned balls-to-the-wall rock’n’roll which sadly is a rarity these days. Despite coming on to a pretty much empty but steadily filling room, they still continued to rock the joint, with great stage energy and topped off with cowboy boots and scissor kicks. They even threw in a cover of Whole Lotta’ Rosie for good measure. The set was full of guitar pyrotechnics that truly showed off their skill to entertain. Bravo to them! I had to leave with one of their T-shirts.

Next up were Sublime, a synth-based electro-indie-pop band who at first I was weary of. Electro is not normally my style but I was soon won over by their cool, refreshing sound. A line up of drums, keyboards, guitar, laptops and violin backing up the cool female vocals was an interesting take on live music. The smooth melodies and electrifying beats made a sound reminiscent of late Bond music. On the whole pretty darn good!

The next group was truly a pleasant surprise. They were the all female She Creatures from Venus - and did they look it, taking to the stage with huge hair and space age electric blue and silver costumes! Their retro sounding songs were excellent, with great musicianship and comedy vocals about what it is like living on Venus. The true highlight for me was the appearance of a theremin onstage with them. With their style reminding me of 60’s rock and raw garage music, their set was truly magnificent and a must see for anyone. I pitied the next band on.

Luckily the next band had no trouble after the previous performances as by now the crowd were all ready to rock. Ulysses are a four piece rock band taking their sound from the 70’s rock scene sounding like Wolfmother and The Rolling Stones. With the exception of a shaky start (due to a broken bass amp) they produced a set of amazing energy and a wall of groovy and melodic sound. The singer was also sporting the greatest jumper in rock at the moment. Mid-set they incorporated a huge percussion jam which was marvellous, I had to resist the urge to shout “More cowbell!” afterwards

The final set of course came from Fortune Drive. Celebrating the release of their new album A Modern Question on Monday, they provided a set of which they are known for: Straight up rock’n’roll. Despite the gig running on later than planned, the audience did not mind one bit and singer Bobby Anderson truly had faith in them to hold him aloft as he jumped in. Fortune Drive produced a flawless performance and between songs spoke to the audience well, keeping them entertained.

Its truly amazing how the band had stuck to their style and not altered one bit to fit in with the trends of other bands; the likes of Radio One.

The show last night proves this music is still alive and will always be what makes a great night out. The new album offers some good old dirty rock’n’roll powered by grooves and topped off with dirty guitars and soul tinged vocals. Something to tell all your friends about!

www.fortunedrive.com

Chris Mulligan
Photos: Jess Warren