22/5/2010 Skintight Jaguars @ The Barfly

Subject	Skintight Jaguars @ The Barfly
PostedDate	5/22/2010
	Wow - tonight I'm going to a gig at somewhere other than The Gaff! Yes, occasionally other venues do actually book bands who I want to go and see. And so I find myself at The Barfly - a place that was once a regular haunt of mine - back in the days when they used to book plenty of rock bands instead of the indie lightweights have there now. Skintight Jaguars have somehow slipped though the net and got a slot supporting The Perils. Fortunately, this gig goes a lot better than their recent disastrous one in Archway. Amazingly, nothing breaks or goes wrong! The only dodgy moments aren't the band's fault - the guy operating the smoke machine seems to have something against bass player Matt and regularly tries to hide him behind a dense smoke screen! Oddly enough, there is no smoke during the following band's set... Smoke aside, the Jag boys have an unusually good night with a noticable lack of the normal gremlins that seem to haunt them. Tonight is also the launch of their new EP - which they are handing out for free to anyone who has bothered to come and see them. This new CD is definitely a noticable step forward from their album, with improvements in the vocal department as well as a marked progression in songwriting. There is a respectable crowd in the Barfly tonight, and the band get to play in front of plenty more people than usual. The band reward the watching punters with a high energy set full of punk attitude. Although I suspect hardly anyone watching the band actually knows who they are, they give Skintight Jaguars a good reception and seem to appreciate the racket they churn out - maybe the band's luck is starting to change?