Hundred Reasons

A band who appreciates their fans will give them free stuff. Tonight, Hundred Reasons *are playing their fans a free gig at *The Underworld, Camden. My expectations for tonight were low as I have been largely disappointed by the new recorded material with the shift away from the heavier metallic side of things that they did so well at the start of their, so far, illustrious career. Tonight I just realised that I was disappointed by the way they are _recording _their music. They are supremely heavy when on stage and it is a truly magnificent spectacle.

Now I am going to compare them to At The Drive-In. This is a suitable comparison and everybody's saying it. I agree with the people who say it's all about the massive hair of Colin Doran and the raucous *atmosphere *surrounding them. It's certainly not about the music or attitudes. ATD-I have a more jagged edge to everything that they do while *Hundred Reasons *appreciate the melodic way of things and screamy way of things equally while being intricately heavy about their music. They did, however, try to discourage stage-diving. *OH MY GOD!! THEY'RE JUST COPYING ATD-I NOW!! *No. They just didn't want people falling onto their effects pedals and mucking up the sound. They don't care about what happens to the fans, obviously. Or do they…

Half way through their mixed set of old and new tunes a young man situated at the very front of the crowd had been on the receiving end of many a kick from many a hefty young man making his way both to and from the stage. He got to watch the rest of the show from _backstage _courtesy of Colin the nice guy frontman who also gave out bottles of water as there was none provided. It just makes your heart melt, doesn't it! As well as being nice guys they do play heavy rock while throwing various shapes and postures with much head-banging - reinforcing their status as rock gods. Let them be an example to all who wish to look good on stage.

The set kicked off with their debut release of 'Cerebra' which was an excellent opener as everybody loved it. The perfectly combined guitars of Larry Hibbitt *and *Paul Townsend *made for some great riffs and it all just sounded so good. I now have photographic evidence that drummer *Andy Bews actually has 17 arms. Cerebra was the only track played off that debut EP of 'One' while all three tracks from the new release of 'Two' were played tonight and each one went down a storm. The boys have clearly been practising as they were tighter than a stoat's arses. This may just be because the audience were mostly big fans of *Hundred Reasons *- but I doubt it - but the new songs were as well received as any of the others. The band have certainly created their own distinctive sound of heavy riffage and screaming followed by intricate picking and singing with excellent rhythm from Bews' formidable drumming and *Andy Gilmour *doing his thing on bass.

They 'finished' the set with a new track called 'Gone Too Far (Metal)' and it most certainly was metal. Not the old metal that can be associated with discarded tracks 'Different' and 'Clear', but new more intelligent metal that has been cleverly constructed and just fits in to the Hundred Reasons sound so well. Their encore gave a crowd pleaser of the slow song 'Falter' which you just had to hold your lighter aloft and sing along to. It put goose bumps on your arms - it was quite special.

This gig can be measured, accurately, in three ways: what I thought, what the fans thought and how much sweat Larry Hibbitt's *t-shirt held following the show. I thought it was an amazing show of a band who are ready to take on the world and its best friend. The fans apparently agreed as they went absolutely mental. Larry was sweating like a rabid newt on speed so he would probably rate this gig as a *good one. Go see Hundred Reasons live before it's too late.