Ghetto Billies + Toerag + The Visitors + Sweetedge - Messclean, Portsmouth. 22/07/05

Sweetedge are like a sudden influx of fresh air and space within the confines of Messclean, an evening more used to rock and outlandish behaviour. This trio of gifted musicians treat us to a spectacular set of well crafted songs that come at you in various layers, much like a painting where you pick out subtle colours and textures and are able to immerse yourself in the composition. They come from a folk roots direction for want of a better description, flourishes of picked acoustic guitar over gentle beats and at times an times an almost dub like bass that floats and weaves around the numbers; that's not to say they can't rock out in their own way as much of the material comes across as being quite dark in nature but at the same time spiritually uplifting and pleasing on the ear. Front lady Della has a haunting voice and one that is hard to forget as it's used almost as another instrument rather than just as a vocal and is truly original in nature. Admittedly, it is a voice likely to divide opinion, much as someone like Kate Bush does and will not appeal to everyone but within the concept of Sweetedge it is integral to their original sound and tonight they go down surprisingly well.

The Visitors are a rock band reduced to just two members tonight playing acoustic tracks and following a band like Sweetedge does then no favours as they sound lumpen and one dimensional. They do a few of their own songs and slip in a cover of 'The Joker' but it is slightly dull as are following band Toerag. They are another of those indie type bands that have a very trendy following that wouldn't normally be seen dead at Messclean but come to see their mates. It's very safe foot tapping material, solid but uninspiring and not what I was expecting from a band named Toerag, very disappointing.

On tour from America, Ghetto Billies are pure fun and quite spectacular. With roots in classic rock, they have added a whole lot of everything else into the mix from disco to country to make a quite explosive cocktail of sounds and tunes that could make even the most rigid person shake a leg. In their promo pictures they look like a cross between The Darkness and The Scissor Sisters which sounds like a nightmare but luckily they look better in the flesh and sound brilliant. A few comments were made at the end of the evening about how good they were and why on earth they were not playing larger venues and that is a question I was asking myself and have not found a suitable answer yet.