ALPHA ROAD/ ROSALITA Review- 19th Dec 08

Friday 19th December 2008
Cambridge Junction:
ALPHA ROAD/ ROSALITA
w/The Running Mayfairs, You Me and Them Club & The Jacqui McQueens

My first impression of The Jacqui McQueens wasn’t amazing. I thought that they looked like “another one of those rubbish garage bands with a teeny bopper look” . I’m sorry to be so blunt about it but it was clear that they were all very young and didn’t have the look going for them either. I was however, impressed with the first song.. The vocals were seemingly up to scratch and they appeared to know what they were doing despite looking about 10 and having a bassist that could have fitted well into the band “Hansen”. The second song was even more to my liking. The tempo and the volume got cranked up and it was proving to be obvious that the crowd were getting into them, judging by the masses of teens that were jumping about anyway!

One thing that seemed to jump out at me about them was their poor attempt at harmonising in certain places. From what I could hear the female vocalist was good but her voice just wasn’t loud enough to hear, even with a mic. This just made the harmonies pointless so they didn’t seem to make a difference to any of the songs at all. I think the band were trying to go for a White Stripes inspired sound, and good on them for trying, but it’s just not them!

On the contrary though, every band member showed sheer enthusiasm and confidence on the stage. They had a spark of professionalism about them that I just loved, I’m pretty sure that it will get them far in the future!
The band covered Bowling For Soups hit “girl all the bad guys want” and I thought it was very well done! But again, the female vocalist wasn’t loud enough! Though this was halfway through the song and it did seem to increase as the song went on so she was forgiven!
I don’t really want to criticise the female vocalist too much though because I think that it is pretty hard to get into the rock genre as a female and it is rare that you ever hear of a rock band with a female singer making it.

The band finished up with one of their own songs titled “Murder On The Dancefloor”. It proved to be a crowd favourite straight away and was AMAZINGLY up-tempo. What made the last song even more amazing was the fact that I could hear the female vocalist PERFECTLY and I was finding that I could compare her vocal talents to those of Kate Nash! The band even invited a few of their friends up onstage for a dance which was cool. By the end of their set though I was glad to see some of the older members of the audience moving further forward because I was so fed up of being surrounded by dancing 12 year olds!

Overall though I would say that the band were energetic, worth waiting for, pretty damn cool, not your average teeny bopper garage band and have a glint of professionalism that is sure to get them far in the next few years! (that’s if they keep at it of course!).

Next up were the band You Me and Them Club. The setup looked as if they were going to be something like Hadouken! or Does It Offend You, Yeah, and to some extent they did. They were quite heavy on the bass and the keys that I liked a lot. To be fair the vocals weren’t amazing but I think that was made up by the fact that the lead singers dancing was TOO funny. I really wanted to like this band because they seemed cool, I was hoping that my opinion on the would change as the set went on. The band in terms of genre were diverse and very hard to place. They seemed to include a bit of everything in their music that increased their appeal to me. Surely this was showing how they weren’t limited or stunted in any way. They had indie guitar, jazzy keys and a screamo styled vocalist. I think it was certain to say that this band were an odd ensemble, but they seemed to pull it off well.

The crowd livened up during the third song of their set, though I really couldn’t see why. The song just sounded the same as the first two they had played. Maybe there were a few chords and a couple more key changes, but that was about it in my point of view.
I think that I would compare the band to The Metros or the Underground Heroes… Just something of that sort of genre.

For the last song of their set The Jacqui McQueens joined them onstage to dance and livened the crowd up some more. The band got a little excited and nearly knocked out one of the photographers with a mic-stand but I won’t go into too much detail about that. The last song sounded so different to anything they had played previously in the set. Even I found myself dancing along with the people in the crowd. I loved it.

Next to take to the stage were Yellow Garage. The first song they played was titled “Hold On”. This had a typical indie sound to it but I noticed that the chorus changed in temp and had the whole audience jumping around. The band had definitely won the audience over. On top of all that, their image complimented their music perfectly. (the lead singers hair certainly has the wow factor girls!). Though I do believe that I was loving this band so much more because they had a good few years ahead of the previous two! They also seemed to have brought a majority of the audience with them.

I’d say that vocally, the band sound a BIT like Vampire Weekend but don’t hold me to that. They sound different in a lot of their songs. The band really have a lot going for them and are definitely worth checking out at a local venue! They have so many pull factors. They’re popular; they had a good strong following and the photographers were climbing over each other to get a good shot. They have a constant good sound; the vocals and harmonies were of good quality and were definitely the highlight act of the evening so far. Another strong point for them would be their lively middle eights. They seemed to get the crowd moving and jumping about a lot.

Yellow garage also performed a cover. They covered “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas and it went down brilliantly with the crowd. I think that the beauty of it was that they made it their own rather than just making it sound the same as the original hit. The way they played it was far rockier!

By now I was getting slightly annoyed by the large numbers of teens that were being thrown my way but I wasn’t going to let it ruin this set. The band had a slight disagreement onstage about which song to play but when they eventually decided what to play they resorted back to their lively selves. Every band member looked like they were enjoying themselves, which was nice to see

With Yellow Garage‘s set over it was time for The Running Mayfairs to do their thing. Straight away I could see that they had a certain likeability about them. There was a lot of movement going on onstage and it was clear that they were just as excited as the audience was. Okay so they didn’t have much of an image going for them (they looked like they were wearing their dads clothes but maybe that was just their style!) but they were still cool.

I could hear a bit of the Underground Heroes in them and definitely had something that I know everybody could appreciate. There was no doubting that the rest of the set was going to be of a similar high standard. I could have done with them playing a few more foot-tapping tunes because they really did guarantee to get you dancing!

“Make It Happen” was one of my favourite songs of the night. It had rhythm and the vocal quality and high energy was there! I must say though that the crowd didn’t seem to be moving quite as much for them despite the fact they were playing stuff that was similar to the band before.
I really liked the last song, sadly I’m not too sure on the name of it was but it was a quality tune to end the set with. They messed it up first time round and had to restart but I loved it none the less. It was amazingly catchy!

The crowd went mental for Alpha Road as they started their set. What I heard in the first song was completely different sounding to what I had heard on their MySpace profile before hand. It was clear that the band had a number of fans from the amount of teens around me, (that were sneakily having a few beers) and how many were screaming and singing along to the lyrics. The lighting was set in time to the music and it could have easily given anybody an epileptic shock but it didn’t bother anybody at all. Everybody was really into the set!
For an unsigned band the roar of appreciation they received was huge. I had been anxious to see how many people an unsigned night at the junction would attract but I was shocked to see the venue packed to the brim. Amazing.

The band was energetic and seemed to show no weakness onstage. They were all constantly moving and showing off to the audience. They could certainly reassure anybody with a half hearted opinion of them that they really do mean business.

The song “Sophies Hair” really differentiated from the rest of their set, and the rest of the songs performed by the bands that had performed before them also. The band announced the song “Astronaught” and the crowd went crazy for it- it was a favourite. I could see why, it was fast and had some cool guitar and percussion going on. It was nice to see that the band were enjoying themselves. There were plenty of smiles being flashed to the audience and lots of showing off too. Each band member seemed genuine, they didn’t have anything to hide behind their cheeky grins!

Alpha Road also performed a cover. They announced it as “a song we would all recognise from our childhood”- and we all did. This was the definitive highlight of my night. A BACKSTREET BOYS COVER. My guilty love for them had come out them but I didn’t care. Out of the covers I’d heard so far, this was the best, nothing could top it.

Many members of the other bands appeared at the stage doors to have a dance along and to show a bit of appreciation. I think that all the bands previously had learnt how to win over an audience. Nineties revival. Simple.

The band burst into another rhythmic song and REALLY got the crowd shouting along as opposed to the guilty unconscious singing that everybody had been doing to the previous number. At this point in time the other bands were still “raving” at the stage doors.
The last song in the set was titled “Just Wave”. it was a great choice to draw a close to an amazing set. Serious credit to these guys though, they’re such an amazing quality band. Get to see them while they’re still unsigned because I don’t think that they will be for long. They have everything that talents scouts like to see in a band. Popularity, quality and promise. They have some brilliant tunes and their EP is available for about £3!

First impressions of the band were not brilliant. They struck me as being quite odd and very hard to figure out. They had some Does It Offend You Yeah style keyboarding with the image of the underground heroes, with the ham burglar (of McDonalds fame) for a lead vocalist. I liked them though. They seemed to get the audience going from the offset. They had volume, energy, charm and the lighting powerful enough to bring on a fit!

The lead singer jumped into the barriers quite a few times during the set which really excited the audience, maybe a little bit too much it seemed in some cases. He did manage to show a soft side when his hat went missing though. He told people the story behind it and it was soon returned to him. He then went back to going mad for the second song.

The band played a new song titled “Karaoke Machine” that people really enjoyed. This song was far more harmonic than anything they had been playing before hand. The energy didn’t fade either. They were half way through a high energy set and were not showing any signs of exhaustion. I think it was at this very moment I realised that the lead vocalist looked much like this band was that they were so natural, chatty and easy going.

They slowed things down a bit for all of ten seconds during the middle part of a song before blasting out the same cool, high energy riffs and unique vocal work just as before. The crowd were loving every second of the performance and there was no lack of shouting, singing, jumping or dancing going on. There was plenty of it to know that the band has made an impression on every person in the room. I think that by the time the last song came around, even those Rosalita sceptics had been turned. Everybody was still dancing away and had more adrenaline and energy then they had all night. The performance and the atmosphere in the venue were electric. ALL members from the previous bands joined Rosalita onstage to dance to the last song. What a way to end a gig, a mass stage invasion by the support acts. Brilliant.