Hola Manana, The River Valley Band, TwentyPercentDead, Teratoria & Cronus.

Finally, a weekend filled with bands and music. Myself, Daw and the Chief were in Ryans pub last night, which seemed to have something for everyone.

When I arrived there was a trad session in the centre of the pub, a band setting up in the front and Problems at the Pancake House had Hola Manana and The River Valley Band in the back room. The River Valley Band have been gigging around the town a lot lately but I missed all the gigs because of my exams. I’ve heard nothing but good things about them and after hearing some of their early E.P mixes I wanted to check them out.

Knowing that the back room in Ryan’s has crap lighting and we were celebrating Daw’s birthday, I didn’t bring my camera with me. In the end, I spent most of the night moving between the back room (it was way too hot) and listening to the covers band in the front bar (it was just as hot but had a bar!). I’ll definitely go see Hola Manana and the River Valley Band again. Hopefully somewhere with lights and air conditioning.

Hola Manana are only together a couple of months but they’re pretty awesome. They have a real Album Leaf sound, keyboards, a flute, xylophone. I was pretty surprised to see former Slave Zero guitarist John Roche playing bass. I’m not sure if he’s a full time member of the group!? Check them out here. The River Valley Band are awesome, end of story. I’m really looking forward to hearing the E.P and hopefully shooting them in the future. Check them out here.

Sunday morning (or mid-afternoon) came too early. Memories of last nights adventures continue to resurface in flashback form. At some stage myself and John Morton transformed into Rentboy and Sickboy, well… very drunk versions of the Scottish junkies anyway, ranting away in Scottish.

Following on from my less than favourable review of Cronus when they played support to 23 (who rock!), I was surprised when they added me on MySpace earlier this week. Then when vocalist Joey said to come along to their Underground gig I figured the lads wanted a second chance, I was quite happy to check them out again. I don’t like writing bad reviews but at least the lads from Cronus took my criticism and realise it wasn’t a personal attack (unlike other bands).

First up were Dublin grungers TwentyPercentDead, but it clearly wasn’t a good day for them. On the way down the bassist took a wrong turn and so they had to do their sound-check without him. When the time came to take to the stage, they were still waiting. With a lot of people in the middle of exams and the sun shining outside, there was a small crowd in the Zoo, mainly kids. Everyone waited. By the time he finally arrived and they got started attention spans were low. Musically, they were good although the guitar sound was “wimpy” and every time he stepped on his pedal it became muffled with static. And it seemed like they just weren’t into it. Clearly influenced by bands like Kyuss and Nirvana (it’s okay, they’re old enough to have listened to Nirvana before they were completely over-rated) but they just didn’t have any stage presence. The crowd stayed away from the stage, the band seemed more like 90% dead and with nothing to take photos of I found myself growing bored very quickly. I’d like to catch them again when they’re not having “one of those gigs”.

Next up were Teratoria. I missed the start of their set, I was outside talking to T from Atrax Mantis, trying to figure out what we were talking about outside the Watergate at 5am and what was the deal with the cute American chick who’s eyes looked in different directions!? When I went inside the crowd had moved right up to the front of the stage and they were doing that “arms around each other mosh thing” that they do. It’s like moshing for beginners or something!? Teratoria’s set was okay, better and tighter than the last time I saw them. Their songs are catchy, they’re tighter and the vocals have improved with nice harmonies from the drummer too. But the solo’s are pretty pointless, seeming more a formality of following a generic song structure. I’m not sure they know what type of music they want to play, with songs varying from radio-friendly rock (one sounded very like that Eagle Eye Cherry song ‘Save Tonight’) to faster, heavier, chunky-riff metal songs. But they are young and certainly making progress. Still lacking in stage presence, I didn’t take any shots of them.

Finally, Wexford thrash metallers Cronus took to the stage. In typical Kilkenny all-ages gig fashion most of the crowd left after seeing their friend’s band. But that didn’t stop Cronus from taking things up a notch and slamming out a good performance, despite technical difficulties with the bass amp continously cutting out. Those who bothered to stay around enjoyed the set. With the band in constant states of head-banging and windmills, finally I had something to take pictures of. I stopped taking notes so don’t know the song titles but their set was a far cry better than last time. The songs are less drawn out and tighter, they’ve got plenty of stage presence and they’re confident. Joey’s mic technique has improved greatly (I’m just not really into that style of vocals) and he interacts well with the small crowd. Last time he was also playing guitar but not today, with only one guitar their set seems a lot tighter. Not that he’s a bad guitarist, I heard he was great at the One Take Sessions and he gets lessons off the legendary Clive Barnes, but for Cronus, one guitar works. They’re hitting the studio in a couple of weeks to record their E.P and they’ve changed my mind, I’m looking forward to hearing it when it comes out.

For now, I’ve added my shots of Cronus in action to the Kilkenny Music Galleries, again playing around with a studio style series of live shots. Check them out here. It feels good to finally update the galleries, adding another band, and getting some practice in for next weekend, which is surely going to be one of the Summer’s best weekends gig-wise, with Laminate playing their farewell gig and releasing their E.P on Friday night in Cleeres and then Dublin instrumental band Parhelia in the Zoo Club on Sunday. Both these bands are awesome and if you miss these gigs, then well, you’re an idiot.