Twist

See... because Twist are girls, the automatic thing say is they sound like Hole/L7/Kim Gordon/Bikini Kill [delete as applicable], yet, if I was to compare them to anyone it would be early Nirvana. Good tunes but never simple formulaic songs, powerful without ever being turgid, in a laid back devil-may-care between-song patter way; showing they have a sense of humour about themselves, while their playing ability showed that they mean business. I liked the way that Emma's vocals had a bit of light and shade, rather than 24hr gravel and that the instrumentation went for interesting, rather than easy options.

In fact, I thought that both Twist and Pusha both had the foundations of really good bands and could musically develop into something brilliant! There were no weak links, everyone performed and put their hearts into their sets. Songwriting gets more sophisticated with time, but if you can't kick ass in the first place, then it's likely you never will! Pusha were more English punk rock than American, more Song-2 Blur and Buzzcocks, than Green Day. It's a shame I missed the first half of their set. I found myself wanting to hear those harmonies recorded, to hear their sound on wax since the sound man did them no favours. Pusha kicked ass. Pete, the singer, reminded me of Mr Albarn, a bit, in his attitude but without the fey mockney tones. (On a more shallow note, Leon, the drummer WAS Nice Guy Eddie from Reservoir Dogs…)

Autumn were in a different league, somehow. They were a lot more accomplished. I REALLY enjoyed them: fresh, REAL and without the sickening superioratist vanity that accompanies most bands that walk the roads of Morrison and Reed. I'd been told that they were a bit like the Verve, but THANK GOD they weren't! Mat's voice was in the same territory as Ian McCulloch, Mike Scott, Michael Stipe, and Robert Smith. In some ways I can see common influences with those early to mid eighties bands, thankfully sharing Robert Smith's sense of humour about himself, rather than his expertise in the application of lipstick. Unlike those other post-Morrison bands, Autumn had a lot of craft to their live show, exploring dynamics, playing with tension. This was what set them apart from the other DIS-selected bands tonight. They held my attention, a trip rather than a sequence of cheap thrills…

There are only two things I ever want in a band and it's that they MEAN it, that they give 100% when they perform and it's rarer than gold dust to find both, yet tonight there were THREE….

Lucky me