There are no words to describe the frustration and anger towards the derailment of a live gig. You know the bands are good, the material is there, but when the sound man is having a mare, noone knows whats cracking off. The venue size obviously effects the overall sound, and this gig was no exception.

The Casino Brawl had already taken to the stage as we walked in, and it sounded heavy as shit. After say twenty seconds I already started to get annoyed. The sound was tragic, the levels where all over the place and there was a pathetic turn-out for a Saturday night. Not a great first impression to a band that seem to have a lot of potential, in that sense I won't judge the band as you could definitely hear something good out of it. Even if it was layered by an overly loud and probably deaf sound tech. As for stage presence, these lads know how to move. Lead singer Jonny (couldn't find his second name) seemed to wave his hips with the music, and sway backwards and forwards - clearly loving what he does. At times he would run across the bar screaming his lungs out or set up his mic off-stage into the crowd. The screaming vocal ability of this young chap was something to be proud of, you could hear different tones in the scream throughout. The band were tight, they had some cool break downs and stop-starts that all kicked in as heavy as a Tyson punch, from what you could make out anyway. The vocals were to low, the drums were to high and the lead guitar was nowhere to be heard. A big shame.

Unfortunately the same has to be said for lead act Flood Of Red. This time they had their own sound man, and he did an even more tragic job of putting the levels together. Maybe they should re-think the hiring of this guy? They did however hit the stage like a proper band should, starting off with a little intro and kicking in with some powerful stuff. The stage presence was there and the musicianship was brilliant. In-between songs Jordan Speirs would talk to the crowd about their new record and thanks for coming out, you know the usual crowd pleasing talks, but even then you couldn't hear a bloody thing he was saying. By the first few songs I was ready to leave as I didn't want my opinion of this band to be shattered by a shit sound tech. At times you couldn't even hear Dale Gallacher play his part in the vocal section, even the drummer was asking him to turn him up. Speaking of the drummer; Graham Griffiths (try saying his second name after a few beers) this guy is a machine. His fills were just epic, the single kick beats he was doing could only be maintained by a handful of drummers and his showman ship was great.

Edging towards the last song I did manage to catch a few words from both lead vocalist and Calum Doris (guitarist/vocals) and I loved what I heard. They mentioned something about a band they had just toured with being quite successful. And instead of moaning about the success, they simply said "they are what's making us work harder." They worked extremely hard, even though there must have been the low end of thirty in the crowd.

The end to their set was a rare moment in gigs like this. Mr Griffiths (I have never seen a man with such skinny legs) was outro'ing with a drum roll beat, the other band members then put down their instruments and picked up the nearest thing to resemble a drum and started playing the beat. From backstage the members of Casino Brawl walked to the crowd floor with parts of their drum kit and started playing the beat, it was like some sort of fucked up tribal gathering. The ending was spot on, with everyone hitting the last beat right on the dot.

Putting aside the absolutely shit sound, I still enjoyed the gig which is what matters the most. Both Casino Brawl and Flood Of Red made a good impression, I just wonder how good it would have been without the tragedy of fundamental live music error.