A Night Of Coincidences at Pivo Pivo

Hello fans and strangers,

Normally my reviews are quite structured, but as this "review" is not coming from recent memory, I thought I would permit myself to ramble a bit.  At some point in the near past, I experienced a wonderful night of coincidences at the venue Pivo Pivo which highlighted to me what the 'local' music 'scene' is all about - fun and crossing genre borders because everyone is too skint and unknown to know any better.

To start with, it was a bit of a chance that I even attended said venue on said night (whenever that may have been).  Previous to the gig, which I was to be attending purely to enjoy The Cellophanes ( http://www.myspace.com/thecellophanesuk ), I had been having a rather jolly old time of it in a nearby public house and was pondering if a) I had missed the said Cellophanes experience and b) if it would be worthwhile shedding myself of several quid in entry fees to discover this.  Time, you see, had flew by as I was having fun.

Erring on the side of "feck it, I love music", myself and my female companion took a stroll around the corner to chez Pivo and immediately I was rewarded.  For on the bill for the night were none other than TvRevo ( http://www.myspace.com/tvrevo ) a band with members it wouldn't be a stretch to describe as chums of mine, and whom I had been intending to seek out in a live function for many a moon, only to be denied by scheduling clashes.  This was one of the night's coincidences.

As it so happened, we were in time for The Cellophanes who, as memory serves, played up a storming set that night.  This being despite the fact that Pivo Pivo has a patchy performance in handling vocals, and in my opinion the vocals are a huge part of what makes The Cellophanes great, from what I can remember they managed to batter through and make singing through a microphone that sounds 10 feet underwater feel like an art form.

Sean, bass and vox of said 'Phanes, could later be found relating to me the band's escapades at Be In Belhaven (a festival that featured another band featuring a chum, Make This Relate ( http://www.myspace.com/makethisrelate ), who don't actually feature in this musical adventure but are worth listening to) (oh wait, well, they do actually kind of feature in this night - the last time I saw them live was in support of What The Dead Know ( http://www.myspace.com/whatthedeadknow ) of whom guitarist/singer Camebull was in attendance this fine Pivo-lian night as a fan of TvRevo - coincidences I tell thee!).

Before we go any further - MySpace (or my[_____]beta as it wants to be known as now) is now crashing my PC, so if any of these links are incorrect - sorry, but I was mostly guessing.  I'll continue.

So Sean was relating to me a tale of this pop-punky band who were also playing at Be In Belhaven, a fine outfit whose name had escaped him at this point in time. This band had performed a truly epic-by-all-accounts rendition of the Tina Turner classic "Proud Mary", and being a fan of ole Tina, Sean felt I should seek this band out if possible.  This is another coincidence that becomes important (in the scheme of things) as we continue.

There may or may not have been another band playing at this point in the night - by now I was partaking in some more poisoned liquid refreshment (or triple-dark-rum-and-cokes to you), so my memory is hazy (it was also around 3 months ago).

Either way, TvRevo did indeed play at some point in the evening, and they were worth the wait.  Energetic as energy can energise, they performed a rather strange mix that just sorta made sense - while the rest of the band were attempting to ressurect the soul and sound of Manic Street Preachers, hopping-guitarist extraordinaire Gary Deighan seemed to have missed the memo and instead was trying to ressurect a not-yet-dead Slash.  Did this strange-but-true mix work? Heck yeah!!  Energy, vibrance and a grounded tone was the theme of the set, and it was a good one.

As the final band made their sound preparations, the audience made good their escape.  Through the various goodbyes, cheerios and cya-laters, the final band took to the stage met with essentially me, m'lady, Sean O'Phane, a few others and their own half-half-dozen of an entourage.  Not that you'd notice.  The band played their set like it was an audience of thousands.  Their above-average pop-punk set (intended as a HUGE compliment by-the-by - most 'local' 'pop-punk' sounds nothing but average) produced a set that seemed so familiar, almost as if this were a band I had been talking about mere minutes ago.  Then they played Proud Mary.

Yes, that's right, the one and only Twisted RainBow ( http://www.myspace.com/atwistedrainbow ) were headlining that very same night, putting the finishing touches on a night of coincidence.  And I for one am glad they were and pity the fools that left early (whether justified or otherwise).  Like I said before, this band put on a show - playing their hearts out and soaking up the fun energy created by such few people in such a small venue.  I wish I could say for sure that there was dancing in the streets.  I wish I could say the roof came off the sucker.  I wish I could say they played Proud Mary 5 times just for me.  These things may or may not have happened (being that I was inebriated and it was so long in the past), but it damn sure felt like they did!

(For a short glance at the nonchalant aura of a band striding the fine line between mockery and mythology, here are Twisted RainBow performing Proud Mary at Be In Belhaven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTmKA26kyH ).

All in all, the night hosted 3 (or maybe 4) great bands, giving great performances, that all held some tenious connection to each other and reminded me exactly what local music should be - fun for fans and friends.  Click on all the links above (if they won't crash yer PC that is) and have yourself a rare old time discovering some bands that made my night.

Cheers