Three Colours Red, Leeds Cockpit
After a weekend of mixed fortunes which involved an unwanted mix of joy, pain, anger, desire and failure, it was inevitable that 3 Colours Red, one of my all time favourite bands would be here to rescue me and hopefully answer all my questions as the had done via CD in the past. Tonight’s performance would offer hope if impressive, but leave me helpless if they were to churn out a below – par “new material” showcase.
But first, tonight’s opener was 3CR’s label buddies HOLLYWOOD ENDING. Some heavy riffs with melodic duel vocals and some very catchy tunes had me straight to their merch table after their set. Small doses of American emo and hardcore took them beyond the basic punk rock standard achieved my many energetic British bands. The two lead vocalists flanked a tall bassist who had the constant attention of the audience, remarkably not through trying. His slow movement and empty gaze into the crowd was amazingly eye catching and surprisingly entertaining. With some hard work and heavy touring this band will receive the respect they deserve and not just be living out of the hands of a big label. (8)
Up next was the outrageous BITCH ALERT. A quite frankly frightening lead singer, backed by two seemingly out of place guitarists and a boring female drummer made this band not a pretty sight. I took in 3 songs of horrid female screaming and whining with trashy guitars and poor drumming before making my way back to the bar room. An extremely poor band with little entertainment or originality, crossing the sound of the Distillers and the image of Rachael Stamp. Yak. (2)
So, the big moment. 3 COLOURS RED. In my intro I mentioned questions, and 3CR delivered answers. The first 4 songs, “Paranoid People,” “Pure,” “Age of Madness” and “This is my Hollywood” pretty much set the tone to an evening where old material would out number new stuff. 3CR have got it sorted, they know the audience is mainly built on past glory and not many of the crowd will have got into the band on new stuff, so why hold the crowd back from what they desire? So many bands today starve crowds of the better, older songs, to increase popularity in new albums and inevitably sales. This isn’t about money with 3CR.
At last new boy Paul Grant seems to be fitting in, and his movement and notably his backing vocal contribution are finally show why he was such a hit in his former band Porn star. My one criticism of the show tonight was 3CR’s encore. 3 new songs, one the storming, “Repeat to Fade” along with 2 basic and toned down numbers. Most of the crowd I think were expecting a second encore where missing classics such as “Hate Slick” and “Paralyse” would appear. It wasn’t to be I’m afraid, however, this was the best I’ve seen this band, and I went home, questions answered and happy. Thank you lads. (9)
Pete
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