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Rating:

With the soft blue lights of the Waterfront providing an apt environment for the genre of music, Second Hand News, Aynsley Lister's support act, greeted the crowd before launching into their first piece. Starting off very well with the only issue being some oversimplified guitar parts the band's set grew tedious as it became clear that each of their songs followed the same format with a vast majority featuring a guitar solo that dragged on as well as often rushing and not appearing tight with the rest of the band. Furthermore the performance was plagued with uncreative drums and a lack of melody. In addition to their original material they played covers of John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix which were executed well enough although not without fault. The second half of their set saw some improvement with some variation being introduced. Overall, however, the set was uninteresting and the vocals were very reminiscent of those of Lemmy from Motorhead.

However when Aynsley Lister emerged onto the stage the bar was raised well above the roof. His first song began with a lovely crisp guitar part and formed a solid introduction. Whilst watching the band I was struck by how much heavier they are live than in the studio, something not uncommon with musicians playing lighter music. The band, fronted by Lister, features a keyboard part that makes it somewhat unique as keyboards are something of a rarity in modern rock. This was a problem in the first half as the keyboard was far too quiet and couldn't be picked up over the rest of the band. The second half of the set however saw the keyboard provide a few lovely melodies that elevated the music further.

As a guitarist Lister is superb. His brand of blues rock is very accessible and his talent shows through in every song. The highlight of the show has to be the cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" which, executed with Lister's classic blues feel, proved an interesting addition to the setlist. The cover of "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone on the other hand was a classic example of the main problem with the performance. Self indulgence. So many of the songs, especially Feeling Good, featured interludes and solos that went on far too long, becoming monotonous before long. While it is impressive that the set went on for nearly two hours, it should have finished four or five songs earlier.

Overall a good gig, but too many songs and too much self indulgence left a bitter taste upon exiting the venue.