31/7/2006 Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster & JOANovARC in WGC

Subject	Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster & JOANovARC in WGC
PostedDate	7/31/2006
	I drove out to Welwyn Garden City to catch JOANovARC supporting Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster at the Green Room - a small room above a pub that manages to book some surprisingly well known bands. I can't remember the name of the first act - a girl singing and playing a Gretch semi-acoustic accompanied by just a drummer. She was OK, although she would have looked more professional if she'd tuned her guitar properly beforehand or invested in a stage tuner... This is almost a hometown gig for JOANovARC and they get good support from their friends and local fans when they play here. This is a band who absolutely love playing live - and it shows in their performances. What's more, they really feed off their audiences and their energy and enthusiasm. Because of this, tonight's show is much better than their gig in Camden a few nights ago at a much bigger and better venue. The Camden show was still a good one, but this was more fired up - particularly when they played new song 'Silver Sun'. This set alone was well worth the 20 minute drive from North London, the headline band was just the icing on the cake... I've only seen Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster once before, and was rather disappointed on that occasion. I'd liked the stuff I'd heard on the radio and read that they were very good live, but when I saw them at the Download festival I thought they were a bit of a mess. To be fair, festival appearances aren't a reliable way to judge a band as the sound mix and the conditions often leave a lot to be desired so I was looking forward to seeing this band play a headline show. I'd had the chant "Do you suffer from mental?" going through my head most the afternoon, so I was pleased when they opened their set with 'Mr Mental' . To be honest I was still less than impressed with this band's live performance, although they were certainly better than last time I saw them. They seemed messy and shambolic compared to the previous band and their sound was muddy. However, they have a good frontman in Guy McKnight - a moody persona with a Jim Morrison vibe going on. They also don't sound quite like anyone else - which is good. They are worth seeing live, but I've seen plenty of better bands this year.