When you come to a live event like this one, you really don’t know what to expect. A night of thirteen new bands (Phew). What are the bands going to be like? Are they going to be all the same - new faces just trying to get that first break into the big leagues? A way of coming over to a new wave of fans. Just to grab anything, anything at all.

The Shepherds Bush Empire is a great venue and especially for these bands that have probably been only playing the small, dingy pubs and clubs around the country. I never thought that this venue would get packed out tonight. We’re talking about small bands here, but to my amazement as the night goes on more and more people file into the venue, making up for a cracking’ crowd. We are all ready and willing to listen to what the bands have on offer. There are two bands tonight that stand out from the rest, the ones to watch out for:

Rotating Leslie is a very, very commercial band. The five piece band is on the cusp of greatness and they definitely have the stuff (songs and performance) to do it. They rock with a coolness that is needed these days. An added something. They have a nice crowd to play to and there’s a lot of dancing.

My favourite band of the evening is Mogul. Let’s just say that a lot of the crowd agrees with me. These guys know exactly what they are doing. They seem the only band tonight enjoying the whole experience of playing such a mammoth venue. All their songs are catchy and totally different from each other. It’s hard these days to find bands that don’t have at least two of their songs that sound exactly the same. Mogul reminds me of the bands that were around in the 70’s. Not Darkness like but they have their own take on it, totally modern.

All in all I am very surprised at seeing some nice bands that I will make a point of seeing again. I am also surprised at how different the bands I’ve seen tonight were from each other. It has been a great night with a few surprises and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the bands I’ve seen. Fingers crossed we’ve got some future stars in the making.

8/10

Review by Emma Nixon

Related Links:

Rotating Leslie Official Site
Mogul Official Site