Fenix Tx
Date : April 15th
2002
Venue : Glasgow Garage
Support :
Rx Bandits / Vendetta Red
After a brief wait in the slowly building Garage que, with various band members walking up and down the street, we were finally unleashed to the Garage.
It was a brief wait for tonights openers, recently signed to Epic Records (Sony break-off), Vendetta Red. I had heard a couple of songs from the bands web site, and had liked what I heard very much, i was greatly anticipating their set. When they first arrived onstage, I could've swore they were Colin, the Hundred Reasons singer, thrown into a band with random members of The Strokes, only producing a far better sound, and despite the dead silence on their arrival, their first song was absoloutely mind blowing, and was in a sort of, Hundred Reasons, or any other average rock band, with a punky edge added to it. From the word go, frontman Zach, never stopped moving, neither did the rest of the band, top on the high-onstage energy scale. It took the crowd violent threats from Zach, before they started to move, but once the crowd were moving, Vendetta Red really had them wrapped round their little fingers, as after the crowd energy started, the onstage energy was still oober high, and it all blended in. But the highlight of their set, had to be when Zach climbed up onto the stack, and hung upside down from the light rig on the roof, and had he of fell, could've broke his neck, but thankfully he didn't, and it pretty much won the night for them, except when he refused to jump, despite the "JUMP!, JUMP!" chants from the crowd! They packed up with 'Accident Sex', then another song from their, to-be-released in June/July demo, which I am really looking forward to hearing, and so should everyone, watch out for this band!
Next up, the Rx Bandits. Their drummer was onstage before the rest of the band, to play some big repetitive reggae drum intro, for some really slow, and not too the point opener, but the majority of the crowd didn't care about the weakness of their opener, as pretty much all of them were skanking and bouncing around instantly. Their onstage energy couldn't match that of Vendetta Red's, but the crowd was going non-stop throughout their set of ska-infested pop-punk, with tracks such as 'Analogue Boy, and 'Consequential Apathy' being the highlights song wise. I think the best thing about the Rx Bandits is, the singers' high vocal power, and with the harmonies of the trombone player, and the special guest star, the Link 80 sax player (sorry I don't know any names), all thrown in with the catchy melodys on guitar and keyboard, backed up by bounce around reggae drums, their sound is really quite incredible, and original, which is one thing that the music industry these days. Me and my mate met the sax player, and he says that they're coming back in September, so look out for them!
After the greatness of the support bands, I was greatly looking forward to Fenix Tx, and was hoping they would show us all who's boss. Their opener, 'Something Bad Is Gonna Happen', was unbeatable opener wise, but sadly from there on, it all went downhill. The last time I seen them, I hadn't heard any recorded material, but this time I had, and I can safely say that they are defientley an album band! Their sloppy, slowed down, and generally shit live sound, ruined tracks from latest album 'Lechuza', such as 'Katie W.', 'Phoebe Cates', and most noticible of the lot, 'Threesome', which they slowed down a lot, and it wasn't at it's usual bouncy level. The other bad thing about the set was the fact that the singer's voice was brought down about an octave, and the backing vocalists' microphone's weren't turned up at all, so they couldn't even help him on his vocal off-night. The hightlight of their set, had to be the ender, in the form of Nirvana classic 'Territorial Pissings', which got the best crowd reaction of their set. To cut a long story short, Fenix Tx were shite on this night, and couldn't compete in the slightest with their support acts, maybe they'll improve next time.
Vendetta Red had to be my band of the night, as it was good to see someone new, and having met Zach and the guitarist with the cool hair (sorry I don't know names again!), they are also really cool guys, and it was cool that they were down to speak to the crowd, look out for them, they WILL be huge soon!
- Click here, for a
review of Fenix Tx supporting New Found Glory, Glasgow Garage, 14.12.01
- Click here, for a review of Rx Banditssupporting
New Found Glory, Glasgow Garage, 14.12.01