Alice Avenue at The Joiners

its been a while since I last payed money to watch a gig, the last few gigs that I have been at I've either been playing or its been free entry. Tonight I went to see Alice Avenue play at The Joiners Southampton and it was a show well worth the admission fee of £5. Alice Avenue are a 3 piece band made up of Mike Wyatt on guitar and lead vocals, Jordan Easby on the bass and ALex kemp on the drums, all of which are in my year on the Popular music course at Solent. The band were formed over the course of last year and Joiners gig was one of their first "land mark" shows. (Though Im sure it didn't match up to playing The 100 Club last week).



Performance

Now that I've given a little bit of background, lets focus on the performance of the night. For me, it was probably the best show I've seen since I was at Bliss Fields earlier this year. The set was filled with blistering guitar solos, great bass fills and excellent drum beats from Alex, everything was dead tight and rehearsed to perfection, (as it Mike's way). The band also have, I don't want to say chemistry it sounds too weird, but they do have a great understanding between them. A great understanding certainly of music but also a great understanding between the three of them. Jordan and Alex were locked in dead tight, and the groves between the bass and the kick drum were well thought out and accurately played. Mike was great on the guitar, some really good licks as well as some fantastic solos that fitted the music really well, he also sang very well and was a very good front man despite the broken leg! There are few, if any, areas where I could really fault them on performance, so I'm not going to! There is such thing as being too picky!

Music

Alice Avenue has a really individual sound that really appealed to everyone in the room tonight. Their sound is difficult to describe, as is the case with most bands, but if I had to pick a style for them, I'd say that they were a fusion of Blues, Funk and Rock. I'm fairly sure that they would all disagree with me on that as very few bands like to be pigeon-holed into a set genre. One of the things that I most enjoyed about the band is that although each member puts in their own feel and personality into the music, they are very carful about doing it in such a way that it compliments what the other band members are doing. This is very refreshing to see as many band members try to either take over the much with too many licks and fills, or just don't put any personality or extra feel into the music at all. With Alice Avenue, this is not that case. The guitar solos were played in such a way that they added to the music, rather than took away from it, the fills on the drums and the bass were well placed and tasteful. Its great to see young musicians playing music that is well thought out and rehearsed and being enjoyed by the musicians and the band.

Conclusion

All in all, a great performance. Great music, well played, profession, fantastic! If I was going to be very critical then i would suggest that the band could use a few more members, perhaps some keys or brass? However this may take away from the feel that the band already have as a 3 piece, but still worth considering. Even staying as a 3 piece though, more could be added to the sound with the use of some backing vocals from Alex or Jordan. There is some room for some really nice vocal harmonies. But thats just me being very picky. Well done guys, keep it up!

you can access Alice Avenue's Myspace Account here

http://www.myspace.com/aliceavenue