13

The Checks

The gritty and overly husky rock and rollers, The Checks, played to an empty room at the Joiners tonight, and apparently this was not the first time. This leaves me sitting here, racking my little brain as to why the jiving foursome whose moves are smoother than a dance off with Jagger are receiving such little attention.

My first theory is this...

I have seen very little acknowledgement of the New Zealand youngsters. While the music media of England clogs up their pages with the continuous mind numbing tales of Whinehouse and Borrell (which respectively is what a lot of people want to read about), they unknowingly skip past such ground breaking bands who are waiting in the shadows, away from the death ray of the "Spotlight", working their arses off to produce something that will fill a gap in the music scene of today.

And what I find even stranger is that The Checks have inhabited our island for over a year now. Writing and recording for their debut album, and yet very little has come out about them.

My second theory is...

Perhaps I am too one sided. Maybe my opinion holds no strength or grounding, but from what I saw in the Joiners on that muggy Monday night smacked me straight around the face with a wave of Rolling Stones esq. riffs, glass gargling vocals and a future iconic front man, who against all the odds let nothing faze him as he moved gracefully around the stage pulling shapes of all sizes.

"Tired from sleeping" had the few people there stamping and stomping along, and "What you heard" with its straining vocal domination rinsed me dry of anything that was bothering me that night. I was in my element.

My third theory is...

Perhaps it is not their time. They have only just released the album, and maybe because I am one of the few who have witnessed The Checks truly do their thing I feel slightly more personal about the subject. This is the most likely I am thinking. But after the echo that is left ringing around my head from the psychedelic opener of "Mercedes Children" it is impossible for anyone to blame me.