Shards

8:30 prompt and Shards are playing to the standard six people in this premier London toilet. The Cambridge four piece, however, seem unfazed and launch into an energetic set of canny indierock. Tracks such as 'Skylover Baby' and 'Lose The Fear' are glossy tunes with catchy hooks and some dynamic guitar playing. Like a fully loaded elastic band the guitarist teeters higher and higher on his tiptoes before exploding into bouncing with alarming regularity. Towards the end it all goes a bit Happy Mondays with an extremely baggy workout, followed by 'Sober', a delay pedal powered epic more in keeping with the rest of the set. The spirit of Mohobishopi and Seafood lives on; expect them to be playing a mid-afternoon set on the Evening Session Stage of Reading Festival some time in the future...

I Own Kings are a different proposition altogether though. No room for indierock and shimmery guitars here. A slide projector is employed for random factor X appeal, the images themselves arty though not particularly interesting (anyone for farmland?). This cannot be said for the music though. Their influences are diverse and intriguing, one track sounding like U2 circa 'In The Name Of Love' whilst later on they rock around to some distinctly AC/DC riffage. Banter is self depreciating though with understated confidence, clearly aware that despite the lack of crowd noise there are a sizable number of people watching. The frontman vogues in an intentionally ironic style, perhaps aware that he all too closely resembles the singer from Toploader _[please note: this is untrue and we apologise for any distress the band may be caused because of it - an editor.]_. It's fun to watch and fantastic to listen to.