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Formerly known as
Sneaky Bat Machine the band take to the stage in a bizarre combination
of fun fur, welders goggles and fluorescent reflective strips.
The crowd tonight are most definitely fans and fans only. This is one of
those bands that appeal to the surreal, the cult following as you might
call them. Their style is electric Goth which translated means not quite
Goth and not quite rave music.
This is rock as it's most eccentric. The fans wear a mish-mash of
clothing which is so confused it often looks cluttered and confused.
As the band open the set with 'Disco 4 the Dead' a lot of their so
called fans don't seem to have noticed they have actually started to
play and carry on talking. It's only when the band get into the third
song that the room seem to realise they are playing and start to take
notice. Not being a big fan of this style of music myself I have to
admit that the tunes are catchy and hold a good beat. However I think
it's more a case of they are OK for a couple of songs but after that you
start to get bored with the electronic sounds drifting out.
By the time they broke into their fourth song it became apparent that
they were suffering severe drum machine problems and without that the
songs are lost really. Most bands would have walked off and gone home at
this point but the fans, who had only recently come out of their coma,
were shouting for them to continue.
The rest of the set was a shambles musically as fans desperately tried
to clap out the drum beat for the band accapello style. What should have
been a bad ending actually saved most of us from dying of boredom as it
was so entertaining and could only be compared to a Spinal Tap moment.
The band quipped that
they wondered if Kraftwerk ever had these sort of horror shows. By and
large the band have to be given top marks for keeping such good spirits
about it and carrying on in the face of utter disaster. They will never
be among my top 10 bands musically, but they will be for humour and
sheer determination to make sure the show went on regardless and the
fans all had a good time.
Setlist:
Disco 4 the Dead, Autoloader, We can rebuild You, Fight the Saucerman,
Steam Virus, Wicked little Girl, The final Countdown, Boneshaker,
Lasergun Music
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