Thursday 4th June 2009 @ Start The Bus, Bristol
With Support From: Emphatica, Not Cool

Thursdays at Start The Bus are becoming a benchmark for fans of good free live music. I went along to see what this week had in store and also to check out local band Emphatica. I have heard a lot of good things about Emphatica recently and they were up first on the line-up to provide local support for the out of town acts.

Emphatica are a post-grunge three-piece fronted by Bristol promoter Sam Betts. They have original material that has the feel of classic tunes when played live. Emphatica played a strong live set that set the bar high for the out of town guests. My personal favourite from the night was called Too Late, a dark and haunting yarn that would not sound out of place on a Pixies record.

Next up were a band called Not Cool - a decidedly dangerous moniker that actually turned out to be pretty accurate in all honesty. Not Cool seemed to be trying way too hard to be ‘The Cribs for the Skins kids’ and just ended up making a racket and looking a bit silly in their spray-on jeans. They had no memorable songs and although their dancing was very entertaining, I wasn’t convinced by the performance much. If you like your punk with a smattering of scenester NME stylings, then these guys are for you.

Last up were the ridiculously titled An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump (so catchy they couldn’t pronounce it very well themselves). These three interestingly dolled up ladies have a set up of three standing tom drums, guitar and vocals. They each rotated their roles between every song. This seemed like an interesting and daring set up until I realised that only one of them had a decent singing voice and only one could play the drums well. Even with a Sonic Youth cover they seemed to struggle to find a balance to pull it off well. This was a shame because they looked like they could be a very cool and interesting band if they stuck to the strongest line-up.

For a free gig, this was still a good night and it made me happy to see the local support out shining the out of town acts. Let’s hope some of our Bristol acts can show up the bands in other cities they go to.

www.myspace.com/emphaticamusic

Stu Freeman