Melodramas
The early stage time meant south coast indie rockers Melodrama’s only played to small crowd but this didn’t stop them giving it their all with guitarist Rob playing some great solo’s whilst bassist Greg rocked out to every tune.
Tracks such as “Betelgeuse” would appeal to fans of the headlining acts Britpop career, whereas the riff on “Elephants” shows a more rock n roll side to the band, along with a tip of the hat to Jim Morrison and the Doors later on in their support slot.
Having played as far-a-field as Vietnam, Kuwait and Australia, as well as continuing to sell out the Edge of the Wedge it’s Melodramas live performances that make them a hard act to follow, and with Gaz Coombes singing backing vocals on their Kids EP these guys were an obvious and very welcome addition to tonight’s line up.
Spring Offensive
Gathering around a single microphone Oxfords Spring Offensive sung in harmony in what seemed to be the start of a classic folk outfit, before taking their respective places on stage to change style into a minimal slightly electro affair.
The set may not have been particularly long but the sweet harmonies continued through songs such as “Not Drowning but Waving” and “No Assets”, before being nicely rounded off by the band ending as they started. So check out the aforementioned singles as although they may not have received the crowd reaction that they deserved on this occasion, they are definitely worth a second listen.
Gaz Coombes
Fronting the stage whilst the band members stood in the shadows, this was very much about the man himself and many of the crowd re-living their youth as if it was the 1990’s all over again. It was no surprise then that the ex-Supergrass frontman was met with shouts for classic indie tunes such as “Caught by the Fuzz” and “Pumping on Your Stereo”, although Gaz Coombes too was feeling nostalgic this evening reminiscing about bands he had previously toured with back in the day.
Musically Gaz has come a long way from indie classic “Alright”, but the 1995 nightclub sing-a-long is a lot more upbeat than the melancholy songs taken from his latest offering – however performing many of these live tonight Coombes proves to be a talented songwriter, before an outstanding cover of the Beats “Mirror in the Bathroom” give the crowd something to jump up and down to.
Some of the obvious Supergrass tracks may have been omitted from the set to showcase the new album but it was “Richard the Third” and a stripped down version of “Moving” that gave the Wedge what they were after and unsurprisingly it was these tracks that received the biggest reaction of the night.
Mr Teeth
