NBT Update

Mon 15th Jun, 2009 in Local News

NBT update

Three heats down and the competition is fierce with 6 bands so far being selected for the semi-finals. Hip-Hop act Rhapcity, acoustic poppettes King George and the light and shade electro-pop band Tantrixx all took out first place, and judges got their second place groove on with One Tiger Down, gave us a guilty bit of rock-pig in the form of The Silver Stars and completed the mix with the solo songsmithery of Helen Shanahan.

The first heat at the Foundry drew an almost full house and was delayed due to the late arrival of one of the judges, What with individual sound checks for each band it was looking like the last band was going to lose its audience to school night anxieties, Luckily however they made some time up somewhere and all the supportive friends and family were able to stay and cheer to the end. Heat 3 started off small, but the Northbridge crowd straggled in halfway through and was looking pretty decent by about 10pm.

We put one of FL’s people on the spot and asked for some candid thoughts about some of the bands so far…

Pageants & Picnics were an adorable three-piece made up of bright eyed 15 or 16 year old girls with the whole violin and guitar thing going, sweet mellow “girl with a guitar” type songs. Quotes that amused me: “i saw a beautiful sunset and thought, better write a song about that, so i did” and “this song is written entirely with pick up lines” (actually it wasn’t half bad)

Rhapcity have apparently spent some time in the studio with some sort of professional and you could tell from their set. They had synths and drums, guitar, bass, and two rappers and a female vocalist. The stage was only just big enough to contain them all! They burst onto stage and from the minute they started, it was clear their set would be good. They really got the crowd going, and I think they already have a bit of a following. Great beats and rhythm and the girl had a really great voice too. By the end of their 20 minute set there was no empty space in front of the stage!

The Bronze were a bit lacklustre in comparison. Nothing too memorable, just your run of the mill rock band.

One Tiger Down had the laidback guitar thing going but with a bit of blues. The lead guy had really good vocals. They were enjoyable and deserved second place.

Laced Affair were a mellow-nice-guitar-songs type of band. Overall they were good, but weren’t fully captivating. They had a local following who sang along to their last song.

Blunt Force Trauma were the heavy metal addition to the night. The second best bit about them was MC Justin’s intro: “More metal than Port Headland” oh and their metal drum kit. The best thing was the drummer who was pretty freakin’ amazing (not that I know much about drumming, but it looked impressive). My earplugs let me enjoy their set more than I thought I would. I had no idea what they were singing, but they even had a few of the kids at the front doing that thing… you know where you dance in circles bashing into each other? That thing. Quite hilarious. One guy even fell over.

Lemon Red were pretty boring. Most uninteresting band of the night.

Toys in Trees are an energetic band of boys, a little bit of punk and a little bit of rock. Maybe a bit like Kasabian if he were 16 years old…

The Whistling Dogs were a very eccentric band with lots of weird instruments. the main guitarist is from Peru and he’s pretty good on the guitar -I’m pretty sure his fingers should have fallen off at some point. They had a girl on melodica and vocals and on guitar for one song but otherwise she didn’t really do much. They had another dude with a frizzy hair and I heard someone say that they could have passed for Simon and Garfunkel looks-wise. They had some different types of drums and pipes and a saw played with a with a violin bow. They got heckled a bit though, especially when they introduced their songs and talked about it not being about a llama and such. They seemed to have a vision, but it was one that was not everyone’s cup of tea.

Helen Shanahan had no band and played acoustic, since her band had been in a freak accident apparently. She has a very nice voice, and played nice sort of country rock songs.

Tantrixx were an electro rock band. They had a Macbook with backing tracks but that’s about the only electro part of their set. The lead vocalist girl definitely had the attitude and the image, with her jet black hair, pleather leggings and shiny sort of wet metallic dress. They had some huge fans at the front ready for them when they started playing. Their stage antics were fun and got the crowd going. Their songs were pretty catchy though they started to get a bit samey towards the end.

The Murder House Blues Band were announced as the best band ever and they weren’t too far off. Tight, I thought. They managed to get a few of the drunk people dancing on the d-floor.

John and the Inverarities definitely got the crowd going! They were nuts and I was hoping they would win something. They were just plain fun and they all looked like they were having a good time too. During their last song, the keyboardist came out with the melodica (seriously, what is with the revival of said instrument? Every indie band has one!) and with the saxophonist, jumped into the crowd to play and dance with them.

Chainsaw Hookers made up the heavy quota of the night. They had a pretty big following too which packed in close to the stage and sang along with everything. They didn’t seem to be anything too special in comparison to Blunt Force Trauma from the other night but they were okay.

Check out Toxikon’s photos from Heat 1 and Heat 3 and if you were there, let us know what you thought of the bands as well.