A couple of Friday’s ago we were at the Rock City Basement (weirdly not actually a basement…) to see Hawk Eyes and Kerbdog. After recently heading to the main room on a Saturday for SOiL I had high hopes for this. But after being caught up in traffic for around two hours those hopes were slowly being distinguished. Once we’d made it to the venue those hopes were not helped at all.

The opening band (who I am going to leave nameless…) were possibly the worst band I’ve had the misfortune of seeing over the past decade. The alarm bells started to chime when, during the soundcheck before their set the vocalist was asked to sing into the mic to check it was working. His response was ‘I don’t really sing’. He wasn’t wrong, what followed was a ‘Parklife’ style talk-sing-whinge-thing. The worst part of the set, and one of the most embarrassing moments of any gig I’ve been to, was a song that basically begged for a record deal. What was worse was that they played it twice. 

It’s ok though, they didn’t plague the ears for too long and up next were Hawk Eyes. Our paths almost crossed one snowy night in Birmingham as the openers on the Jagermeister tour, alas the conditions prevailed and it took a little while longer before I got to see these guys. It was worth the wait though. It’s good to see another young British band coming through and looking so comfortable on stage. A sell out show can be daunting no matter what size room you’re playing in but these guys handled it a treat and were the highlight of the night, outshining their headline band in terms of their set and abilities.

Kerbdog aren’t all about the technical ability though, they’re about building an atmosphere and getting the crowd to enjoy themselves. The band then feed off the energy of the crowd and from there the party builds. They have been going for over two decades now and what was most refreshing was a crowd that fully involved themselves in the entire set. Opening with Pledge gave an early opportunity for crowd participation and from there neither audience nor band looked back. The energy in the room was electric and built throughout the set until the ceiling almost got blown off when the into to Sally started. A brilliant way to end things, but not as good a finisher as JJ's Song. Closing out the encore with this song brought the evening to a close and meant that the hot, sweaty and tired crowd could make their way to the main room for some well earned beers.