Friday 6th February 2009 @ The Croft, Bristol
Featuring Performances From: Roxy’s Wardrobe, Fortune Drive, Yes Sir Boss!!!, First Degree Burns

Braving the icy pavements, I made my way into Stokes Croft for what promised to be a fantastic night of live music, showcasing four of Bristol’s best current bands at the Red Stripe Music Awards - an annual event which has become an exciting fixture on the Bristol gig calendar. The line-up for the four bands on offer tonight was organised with the rock n’ revellers first, to be followed by the funksters, so that everyone could have a good old skank after several bands worth of boozing.

Things don’t start much rockyer then than local boys Roxy’s Wardrobe who gave the packed crowd in Croft’s sweaty back room a lesson in just how to surrender to the riff! Their thrashy rock/pop/punk was crammed with fast, in-your-face beats and rhythms and they were clearly loving it all up on stage – it was like watching your mates who are really good at Guitar Hero (complete with pinch cheeked, ultra- attractive characters)…blue, yellow, blue, green, green – Star Power!!! They overdo it a bit with a few too many ‘rock and roll endings’ but they finish with the ball-busting new single Medication, leaving everyone with racing pulses and ringing ears.

Second up were old heads, Fortune Drive, a familiar Bristol sight now and their performance was typically ballsy, beefy and brilliant. Fortune Drive have got the tunes, they’ve got the edge – maybe 2009 could finally be their year?

Next up are the ace funk/jazz carnival Yes Sir Boss!!!, and they lived up to every one of their exclamation marks with a fantastic funk-opera opener that transports everyone away from their snowy surroundings to the sunny memories of Ashton Court Festival. It seems they shot their load too early though as the three or four middle songs of their set slip dangerously into mediocre Razorlight territory, but they pick it up again aplenty for their closer which got the whole room compulsively bouncing to their funk frenzy that just got faster and faster!!!

Tonight’s final band, First Degree Burns, clambered up onstage at about half past midnight in a sea of sharp, black suits, sunglasses, trillby hats and deadlocks. The atmosphere was electric and the guy next to me in the toilet moments before wouldn’t let me pee in peace; “Man, I can’t wait for First Degree Burns – they’re wicked,” - the band won me over as soon as I realised the man in the middle plays clarinet between rapping! They were the perfect closer to the night, skanking The Croft to the ground with the sort of excellent reggae/ska that will have them fighting for Babyhead’s Bristol crown in no time.

www.redstripe.net

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com