10/6/2006 Dead Monroe & Houston 500 @ Harlow Square

Subject	Dead Monroe & Houston 500 @ Harlow Square
PostedDate	6/10/2006 8:56:00 AM
	I arrived just as Mexican Devil started their set. They are a young band apparently influenced by G'N'R and maybe Pearl Jam. They seen decent enough musicians, but slightly lacking in experience playing before a crowd. At one point in their set the singer anounced that one of the guitarists was going to change over to his white Gretch semi-acoustic - of which he was obviously quite pround. Said guitar then proceeded to feedback badly - something which wouldn't have come as any surprise to more experienced musicians as this type of guitar is very prone to bad feedback when played at any volume. I'm sure if I see this band live in a years time with a few more gigs under their belt they will have improved a great deal. In between bands, most of the youthful audience seemed to vanish - maybe they were having a crafty fag behind the bike sheds or something? I was a bit worried we might have been about to witness a case of 'local band on first syndrome' where loads of people turn up to support their mates band on first - and then bugger off to McDonalds or their Playstations leaving the following bands to play to no one.  Fortunately, this wasn't the case tonight and they came back again. I think they were glad they did. Dead Monroe were on next - a band with plenty of live experience, and it shows. The band put on a polished and assured performance as usual - playing before a decent sized (and enthusiastic) crowd for a change. They seemed keen to be back playing on their home turf in Essex at a well attended gig after struggling with poorly attended shows in London over the last year or so - although they played to plenty of people in Hertford earlier this year. Oddly, even though the (mostly teenage) crowd were into the band from the first song - it wasn't until the token mid-set ballad 'I Break Down' that people really started dancing! Once the crowd were well warmed up the band threw in a T-Rex cover and some of their best new songs. They finished their set with another newish one, the dynamic and catchy 'Happy End'.  Once again, all the emo kids disappeared behind the bike sheds or to the tuck shop. Fortunately, again they had the sense to return when the next band came on... Houston 500 were a band I'd been looking forward to seeing again after seeing them for the first time in Hertford recently and in Camden since. They turned in another powerful and dynamic twin guitar attack. Charismatic frontman Dave rewarded the kids for returning by handing out loads of free live CDs of the band. I think I enjoyed this show more than the previous ones as the songs were more familiar. This was due to the band making a lot of them freely available for download on their various MySpace pages - a good idea that I've only seen done by this band so far. Good though the downloadable songs are, there is no substitute for seeing them performed live - and I think this show was the best of the three I've seen them give so far.  Unfortunately, the excitement seemed to be to much for all the emo kids to take - they nearly all left halfway though the set. Maybe it was past their bedtime - or the 'rents were waiting outside in their SUVs?  Their loss... Hopefully they will enjoy their free CDs enough to come back and stay for the full set next time... It was a bit of an odd end to the evening - seeing the 'headline' band finish their set playing to hardly anyone even though the room was quite full halfway through their set and people were dancing. Maybe it's an 'Essex thing'?  Still, all the bands were worth seeing and I'd have driven the 50 mile round trip to see either Dead Monroe or Houston 500 on their own. Seeing them both on the same bill again was a result!