New Road / Doubting Thomas / Desperate Cycle / Blind Theory - Esquires, 9th July 2005
Reviewed by Martin Stapleton
Tonight, as the flyer promised, was a punk night starring four local young bands.
Blind Theory kicked off the proceedings with a more ‘American’ brand of punk rock. Although obviously very nervous to begin with, they soon found their pace and two of the later songs of their set, ‘The Apathy Song’ and ‘Dammit’ hitting all the right notes for me.
Next on the bill and, in my opinion, the best band of the evening were Desperate Cycle. A predominately ‘old-skool’ punk outfit from Milton Keynes, their influences range from The Agnostic Front, Anti-Flag and they have already supported such acts as Five Knuckle, Howard’s Alias and Kenisia. This was their debut gig at Esquires and it was a great performance. Resplendent in Tartan trousers circa 1976, front-man Nicky Rage literally spat out all his pent up venom in a twenty five minute rage fuelled explosion! Ably supported by fellow band mates, Will (bass), Jimbo (guitar) and Pete (drums), songs such as ‘Ultra Violent’, ‘Stand up for the Youth’ and ‘Brand New Riot’ crackled with anger. With a dearth of good young punk bands around the area (with the exception of The Bleeders), hopefully Desperate Cycle will be back here very soon.
Of the two other bands, my sympathy goes out to Doubting Thomas who experienced a lot of technical problems on the night. However, having battled with a broken drum peddle, the Emo-Punk lads soldiered on regardless to put together a spot on set (as usual).
Headlining tonight were four piece band New Road, continuing their comeback after a lengthy lay-off. Although their Americana influenced set was good, I was hoping Desperate Cycle would play another twenty five minute set! Those guys really were Punk!!!