Haverhill Arts Centre
Saturday, February 9
Review by Karen Steel
THE final heat of Haverhill Rock Competition saw probably the two most distinctive bands of the contest perform – in very different genres.
Harking back to the 60s and heavi
ly influenced by The Beatles were The Early Birds, who were great openers and possibly the most upbeat band of the whole competition.
They veritably bounded along and got the audience dancing (something we've seen a lot more of in general this year) and were one of the few bands to compete who seemed to have listened to any music going back more than a decade.
They were confident and interacted just enough with the audience to not disrupt the flow of the set.
I noticed only a single beat missed (mainly, unfortunately for them, because the drummer's face gave it away), and am reliably informed that some of the drumming was technically extremely difficult.
The award for the most confident band of the evening (only marginally, because no-one was shy or retiring) went to Solstice, who possessed some real swagger, walking off with a place in the final.
Their guitarist drew comparisons with Editors' Chris Urbanowicz, making the guitar sing, and there were high levels of audience interaction, although it was almost verging on cheesy at times.
The band I had genuinely been waiting the whole competition to see was Chaos Dynasty.
Death metal is not a genre I would ever choose to listen to in bulk – the lyrics give me the wiggins – but whenever Chaos Dynasty have performed it's been musically perfect and a great show; generally I felt it had been their singers that let them down.
This year the band appeared with a new singer (the third I've seen them with) and I think they've got the perfect fit now – I was surprised they didn't take a spot in the final.
The timing was great and musically it's not as gloomy as the term 'death metal' might suggest.
Obviously I didn't know their cover version, but it showed off a different note to the singer's voice and was well placed to break up the set.
