Modern like a ZX81
It’s nearly time for the last train but there’s just long enough to nip into The Attic to see what’s going down on their electronica night. What we find is Modern Bullies, who of course fall into the electronica dance category but with a healthy dash of indie thrown in for good measure.
There’s quite a decent crowd in the Attic despite the fact that it only takes about 10 people to make it look busy! Momentarily they sound quite promising with the lap top generated bass booming out and sounding great, quickly it transpires that great as it is it is also a problem as it pretty much drowns everything else out. Singer and guitarist Gibbo punches the air and tries to get the crowd going (he fails) and he might as well have left the guitar at home because it’s barely audible. The sound mix is awful, the drums aren’t miked up, the drum monitors aren’t working, you can just about hear the vocals if you listen hard enough but then you’ll probably wish you hadn’t, not to put too fine a point on it they are rubbish! They just about manage to stay in tune and are too weak by far to carry off the kind of music that they play.
Keyboard player and laptop exponent Matt Czyzyk provides backing vocals and they just seem awkward and out of place. The poor sound doesn’t help them but the overall impression is that it they just don’t gel very well. Maybe it’s the sound, maybe they’re just having an off day but either way I’m not particularly bothered when we have to leave early for the train.