Sounds around town with Dave Franklin (From Swindon Advertiser)

Sounds around town with Dave Franklin

4:06pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in News

Malefice

Last week I was delivered a schedule that was a local music writer’s dream. And do you know what? It’s only gone and happened again...

Yes, another week pretty much packed full of home-grown, original bands (plus a few dodgy imports).

Fate? Coincidence? Maybe, but coincidence is just God’s way of staying anonymous…apparently.

So not being one to argue with divine intervention, I will attempt to seduce you away from weekly recitals of Eleanor Rigby (why mess with perfection?) and The Mavericks’ Dance The Night Away (why? just why?) and point you in the direction of something a bit special, not to mention ordained.

One of the most anticipated local band debuts takes place at The Victoria tonight as Songs of Praise presents the first outing of Atari Pilot, a band who mix high-octane dance with the full impact of rock. With The Street Orphans returning to Swindon after far too long, plus an acoustic start to the night from Plummie and Johnny from The Racket, it’s going to be one hell of a way to kick off the weekend.

At the same time Riffs Bar is playing the prog-rock card with the brilliant Credo, fresh from gigging with one of the favourites of my youth, Pallas, and supported by Comedy Of Errors.

The Beehive is going for exceptional high-energy blues with Innes Sibun.

More blues, this time fused with funk and soul and uniquely British, out at Riffs Bar on Friday, with Sam Kelly’s Station House.

And at The Victoria Killing Joke-fixated 1000 Planets will be playing and giving away their new collection of original tracks that goes under the name of Side Effects.

A couple of slightly different gigs need mentioning at this point. Celebrating its recent refurbishment, The Old Bank will feature a brace of Steves – more specifically guitarists Gilmore – and jazz from Koribantez playing their trademark sound with a heavy twist of Latino vibes.

After far too long away from performing en masse various members of Good Things Happen In Bad Towns will be gathering at Piri Piri restaurant in Havelock Street for an acoustic session. So pop along, order a carafe of wine and let the music take you somewhere far more exotic.

Even in such a week of brilliant original music, The Rolleston is sticking to its policy of cover bands with Built For Comfort and Floydian Doors on Saturday.

However, Saturday also brings you the show that many of you have been waiting for. To make up for the last minute cancellation at the MECA last year, Malefice finally make it to The Furnace. Nearly a decade of hard work and relentless gigging has honed their sound into a brutal, metal tour de force tempered with melody and almost prog inspired breaks.

This is not a band that will disappoint, but it is a band that might easily sell out, so get your tickets sorted now. With local support from I Defy, Kinasis and Deliverance, this could very well be the highlight of the metal calendar for this year.

The Sunday afternoon session at The Beehive features my old friends Kola Koca (nepotism, I hear you cry, to which I reply…get me a dictionary!), who manage to blend folk, jazz, blues, pop and so much more until it becomes less a set of songs and more an aural cruise of Western music.

Later that evening, I urge you all to head up to The Victoria to witness cult Canadians, Ox. Dust bowl blues blended with reverb soaked garage indie-folk seems to cover most of what they do, and if you can’t imagine what that would sound like, well you know where you need to go to rectify that little problem.

If that doesn’t seem like your thing then you might want to catch Rolleston regular Ali Finneran, who also has a passion for folksy blues, albeit a cleaner version and more in keeping with the revivalist movement of the 60s.

Our final port of call is Baker Street on Tuesday for their regular jazz night, this time featuring the dulcet tones of vocalist Zoë Francis backed by The Dave Newton Trio.

Now that’s what I call music!