This Is Bristol – Live Review – 1st February 2012

YOU wait years for a truly great Bristol band and then two turn up on the same night.

Despite a great live music scene it’s been a long time since Bristol has had any bands that are genuinely worth shouting about, that really have a potential to hit the big time.

Well, after the Louisiana’s phenomenal two-hander, that isn’t a worry any more. The two bands couldn’t have been more different but were equally as impressive.

They didn’t feel like headliner and support so much as a great double bill. First up were Crybaby, a 1950s- styled four-piece that oozed class.

Slow, shimmering guitar was matched by a simply gorgeous voice – somewhere between a restrained Morrissey and a Perry Como-era crooner.

With brilliant titles like I Cherish The Heartbreak More Than The Love That I Lost, the songs tell languid tales of love and heartbreak. Their maudlin mood music dances the fine line between misery and romance and was utterly captivating.

Scarlet Rascal & the Trainwreck are still in the early stages of their career but already act like they own any joint they walk into.

Singer Luke Brooks is going to be one of those frontmen people either love or hate when they inevitably burst on to the national stage.

He began the set not with a hello but heavy breathing before the band exploded into the first song.

There wasn’t a weak link, from the wonderfully named drummer Maya Indelicato and Richard Clarke’s thrashabout guitar to James Stockhausen’s thunderous and predatory bass lines.

This is clearly a band whose time has come, and they clearly know it.

See them now before everyone wants a piece.