20/8/2008 Eureka Machines, Loyalties, Sorry & The Sinatras @ Islington Bar Academy

Subject	Eureka Machines, Loyalties, Sorry & The Sinatras
PostedDate	8/20/2008
	Back to rubbish pictures from my phone for this one, but that's summer for you! This gig took place at Islington Bar Academy - not a bad little venue apart from the Carling Bar.  The first band on was Eureka Machines - featuring Chris Catalyst who some of you will have already seen in another guise as Robochrist or playing bass in AntiProduct. This is the third time I've seen this band - the previous couple of times being acoustically as support on Ginger's acoustic tour earlier this year. I was very impressed by them on those occasions, and the full electric version of Eureka Machines is even better! This band are quite difficult to describe - quite odd looking in their matching attire and quite quirky sounding. They can also ROCK pretty hard when they want too. They have some catchy songs and are totally unlike any other band I've ever seen - true originals. The onstage banter is very amusing too, and they are highly entertaining all round. I enjoyed their set enough to make me head straight for the merch stand afterwards to buy their album. It's rather good.  Next up were punk 'n' roll warhorses The Loyalties. Their set seemed very rough round the edges and sloppy after the well rehearsed tightness of the previous band. They have some good songs and play with passion, but it's almost like they don't really care if they are any good or not. An interesting moment is when ex-Towers Of London drummer Snell joins them for backing vocals on a song. I'd been looking forward to checking out Sorry And The Sinatras for a while. The band features ex-Amen and current Wildhearts bassist Scott Sorry. With his hat and sideburns Scott looks like a punk version of Paul-Ronney Angel of the Urban Voodoo Machine, but the sound is somewhat different. Scott is a very animated performer, but to be honest Sorry And The Sinatras just struck me as being a very generic punk 'n' roll band.