Eastern Lane

With the release of ‘Room on Fire’ re-affirming the place of muddy guitar dirges in 2004, you would have thought young, four-piece Eastern Lane would fit in very well, and you’d be right. Crackling guitar chops, drums seemingly on loop throughout the entire set, affected aloof nonsense, and about two songs to their name. This is very, very tiring. I’m all for a band looking and sounding like a band, but when both the sound and the look do nothing to inspire, energise, or even turn ninety percent of the crowd away from the bar, the overall projection leaves nothing but impatience for the last chord to be Stroked.

Lead vocalist/guitarist Derek Meins displays some interest in frenetic warbling during former single ‘Feed your Addiction’ but it turns out to be short lived, as the rest of the tunes dissolve into nothingness seconds after they’ve begun. Any smattering of urgency that might raise these songs above the standard garage drone is visually and sonically absent. Of course, they are very young - all under 20 apparently, so there is time for Eastern Lane to move forward. Let’s just hope that the direction they decide to take is not as lacking in essence as tonight’s gig definitely suggests.