The Hedrons 22/1/07

This evening was a solid piece of entertainment for a fiver. Three bands awash with melodic guitars to at least get my left foot tapping. First up were Different Day with a succession of songs that seemed to get faster as the set progressed, the vocals conversely getting worse keeping up. The lead vocalist prowled the stage with all the demented stiffness of a reluctant frontman that in the context of the retrospective lyrics worked pretty well. I personally don’t give a crap whether this band came form Portsmouth, loyalty to any city is moronic at best (a football team is a different matter). They played a good solid time wasting set, with a guitarist clearly skilled above the material.

Get Amped soon followed – with fucking Jaosn Bowld of Picthshifter fame on the drums – bit of a shock to realise it was him (the PSI eye on the drum kit should’ve been the giveaway). Clearly a drum gun for hire, the band’s eco-friendly surf rock gurning was melodic and interesting enough, although the lead singer’s likeness to Robbie Savage, and his apparent love affair with himself, was slightly face-smash-in irritating. They did own the best lyric of the night, in their environmental power rock sermon, “Tyrannosaurus, was here before us, but now he’s down there, waiting for us. If there’s a Hades, we’re heading for it. Oooohhhhhh, We’re going down.” Amazingly mixing any number of belief systems together (dinosaur hell!), the song was from the Nickleback school of embarrassing, yet just about knowing, lyrics.
At the end of the day, I was there to see the Hedrons, amongst the perverts and dirty old rockers. Having seen them support Alice In Chains in July, when they effectively writhed and ran around the Astoria’s large scale stage. Disappointingly I’d missed the last gig they played, apparently to five people, but with an audience increase ten-fold tonight, this was a reasonable, if male-heavy, crowd.

Looking much smaller up close, the female foursome whipped thorough some pacey rock numbers, with the lead singer breaking her back with an energetic manic display, taking herself into the audience for the final couple of songs. The set gripped from start to finish, and the balls out energy, enlivened songs that on record, might lack that drive. “Heatseeker” and “Sympathy” were particular favourites, with the constant speed of playing. The band need to be seen live to be fully appreciated, but if you’re chauvinistically disgusted by the prospect of a good-looking all girl guitar group, no amount of praise is gonna change your mind. This was a pretty faultless performance – I’m not one to give a shit (or even really notice) any technical aspects of a band’s playing. Impressed and suitably mesmerized, I don’t expect them to be playing a small a venue down south again.