Monday 24 January 2011

Dirty Revolution and Colour Me Wednesday at Bull & Gate - 21 January 2011


Colour Me Wednesday by Massimiliano Petrossi


Ska-punk is the ginger step child of UK music. It is often ignored, often derided by the mainstream. And this despite there being a vibrant scene of young bands playing to happy crowds that are bigger than you might imagine.

I’m at the Bull and Gate/Club Fandango to see three like-minded bands.

When I arrive, the good news is that I haven’t missed anything, the bad that one of the acts has had to pull out.

This leaves Colour Me Wednesday to kick off. They are very young, awkward and self conscious, but actually very good.

The main singer/rapper is Jennifer Doveton, who has great delivery and a strong voice and I love the way that she spits her lyrics at speed.

The songs are enjoyable and well put together and I wait for the band to really let rip. But tonight, they never quite do. They have one song called, rather commendably, “Purge Your Inner Tory”, but they seem unwilling to do anything as violent as that.

It’s a textbook example of a band starting out and not yet being completely comfortable on stage. They look at the floor a lot, they look at each other and they seem to exclusively seek reassurance from a small posse of family and friends down the front.

This is slightly frustrating, but nothing that getting more shows under their belt will not fix. In six months time, when they’ve loosened up and got the confidence that their songs justify, Colour Me Wednesday are going to be a fine act.

I hope to catch them again at that point.

Actually, the support would do well to look to headliners Dirty Revolution for inspiration.

This lot have stage presence to burn and spend their set in such perpetual motion that my rubbish amateur photography can’t capture them at all. I just get a succession of colourful blurs – which actual describes them pretty well.

They are led by the hyper-confident Reb who dances sings and occasionally produces a bright red melodica to add to the mix.

Dirty Revolution will not win awards for originality, but they know how to play a room and ensure that everyone is having a good time. And the ability to do that is pretty much priceless.

A decent night’s entertainment, all told.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more about colour me wednesday. They need more gigs under their belt and a bit more confidence.
I've seen them before and was at this gig and they've def improved but are well catchy...hope they release an album cos i reckon it would sound good recorded cos the myspace stuff does not live up to the live. but I say the same about Dirty Rev's current recordings, they're a bit weak compared to the very tight live experience.
-A