Waiting, anticipation, dread – everyone’s parameters for stop and start are different, and who has the ability to wait the right length anyway? It could be down to chance, or transpire from attunement to your surroundings. Whatever. Secret Rivals enter in a pleasingly swift manner at tonight’s Moshka bill. Walls of noise-pop traverse elegiac guitars at angst-punk tempos. Cascading riffs accumulate friction, then fly with the female vocalist into an accelerated fray. Secret Rivals rock out, but there’s a degree of sameness to each song. Now and again the interest levels lift, but it’s only an occasional novelty in the face of better bands I've seen.
“We are a dark, broody band with a happy aftertaste,” say The Wookies, after Secret Rivals head offstage. Beginning with equal parts keyboard rigidity and melodic simplicity, there’s certainly no nightmare in their showing, even if, as the drummer proclaims, “Dreams are all I’ve got to give you”. Their second tune harbours a fairground-ride crossed with spaghetti western soundtrack. When balancing gruff vocals with soaring riffage and percussive tidal waves, they breathe gulps of air through the line-up. Recklessness is always counterbalanced by order, fighting prog ghosts but never losing touch with reality. I have a feeling this is a glimpse of a band on its way to great things.
True to their name, headline act Drunkenstein are a monstrous gothic hybrid of bands one and two with five cans of cider. Mikes are a prop for many a performer, but none more savage than punks at their most downtrodden, which is what Drunkenstein come across as at least. Concentration and vagueness are not mutually exclusive, but are handled with deft precision, the band cooking up measured heaviosity. Combined with the singing, which has a surprising theatrical quality, their entertainment is like a bath of ice: chilling, fragmented and demanding a careful touch. They say they “stayed up all night practicing”, and it shows.
But where’s the audience, I wonder. There are barely a dozen heads to count. Nevertheless, for those few in attendance, Moshka have provided a sure-fire winner.
Secret Rivals: MySpace
The Wookies: MySpace
Drunkenstein: MySpace
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