Casino City @ ABC 2 6th Dec 2009

I was genuinely looking forward to Sunday night, we've not had an ABC 2 gig for a wee while as we've been busy organising loads of other great promotions at YRock, but I knew Sunday was going to be a good one and a great way to get back into the swing of ABC gigs! I'm not going to pretend to be an amazing rock journalist, so I'll tell you exactly what I thought... and if you get bored of bad grammar and pants descriptions then I'd recommend checking out the bands myspaces to hear for yourself!

Coincidentally, if you fancy being or pretending to be a music journalist and want free entry to gigs, let me know and you could be filling the YRock site with great gig reviews ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Sunday night's headliners were Casino City and this band have worked extremely hard to make this gig a success, in fact the guys seem to work really hard with everything including their music, but we'll get to that.

Warming up the night we had Playtone, featuring our very own gig booker Neb as the lead singer and guitarist. I've known Playtone for a long time, I've played in bands with Watson (bass) way back in the days when we used to fill his parents conservatory with Guitar amps, drum kits and Irn Bru on a Sunday session of Sweet Home Alabama, Enter Sandman and Johnny B Good (of course, and many other classic tunes that every young musician goes through a phase of playing)... and I can remember the days when Playtone were just an acoustic act and song writing duo. They aren't an acoustic duo anymore, although many of their songs have a huge acoustic vibe and are all written with, what I like to call, "feel". Playtone are an extremely tight rock band with great riffs, interesting drum beats and catchy tunes. Well worth a listen.

Playtone were followed by Another Love Party. I've got to say, when I ask a band what there line up is and they say "a couple of guitars and some bongos" all I can really say is "AMAZING!"... bongos, awesome! And they were. Another Love Party are a five piece act of very attractive bubbly females with some very attractive and catchy songs. You can tell these girls are meant for the stage, and in fact I think they were all rushing back from Panto performances to make the gig. The vocal harmonies were brilliant and I think they had every guy in the room's attention when they covered, "I like you so much better when you're naked". The girls were great to watch as their theatre background showed throughout their performance and I would recommend them as a great acoustic act to anybody.

While holding the new world record for longest sound check ever and having me worried about other bands getting a chance to do a sound check... Sing-Kill-Worth were a very interesting band and they grabbed everyone's attention. I want to say 7 piece... I'm not sure, but these guys are a rather large instrumental band with some really unique and brilliant songs. They started with a film cover from 28 Days Later and although I hadn't heard or seen of it a few people recognised the music.  The 3 guitarists also threw away plectrums and finger picking and opted for violin bows for many of their songs... really for me though, the performance was summed up by the sound guy who said to me at the end of the night that he thought they were just brilliant, as he held their CD in his hand.

Tonight though, was all about Casino City. These guys have been looking forward to this gig for a while, they had their own banner made and cracked the glow stick before they went on. The band has varied influences, but notably for me I felt that a few of their songs had a huge influence from U2, and that's not too shabby a band to be compared to. The guys really rocked out for their 40 minute set, they played all the songs in their forth coming album. By the end of the night the crowd were lovin' it and the band were on a total high. I think we'll be hearing a lot more from Casino City and we are all looking forward togetting our mucky paws on their new album when it's finished in early 2010.  To check out the photo album from the night click here