Contra + The Carter Affair + Underdog + Outbreak Season - Messclean @ The Frog On The Front, Portsmouth. 07/04/06.

If anyone has happened to stop by to see my words of wisdom about the Messclean gig from 31st March featuring The Strange Death Of Liberal England & Dragon Eye Morrison + others...well, there isn't one because I was working 'upstairs' at the In Flames gig so only managed to catch a brief glimpse of the early bands. I can confirm though that it was very busy, one out & one in on the door, very hot and was probably a blinder in terms of music!

But on to the most recent Messclean and not quite so busy, but then I like to be able to get to the bar with ease. First up are Outbreak Season, a trio who are making their live debut tonight; they manage to get a few feet tapping to their funky metal instrumentals that are laced with 60s grooves as if the ghost of Hendrix had filtered onto the stage, at times it feels like a rehearsal jam session as the tunes flow back and forth before a chap from the back shouts "I'll sing for you" and arrives on stage. Set up or random nutter? Who knows, but he does a decent job for a couple of songs doing that mix of singing and barking that metal hardcore types love so much but it injects an extra bit of life into the set. A promising start and it will be interesting to see if the singer travels with them next time.

Underdog are also relative newcomers to the scene and this is their Pompey debut. Underdog are a band who sound like they listen to Motorhead and Sex Pistols back to back and have tried to scrape the grime from under the nails of punk and mix it with a little of whatever keeps Lemmy going. The result is some dirty, chugging rock n roll that leaves a vapour trail of oil behind it; while they may not possess the classic songs of their heroes just yet there is plenty to suggest that they could become a pretty decent band.
In their favour they have one of those frontmen that looks rough as fuck with his shaven head and agitated shuffling around the stage, the kind you don't want to meet down a dark alley but looks good on a stage. Underdog are at their best when they are tearing it up and going full pelt, things go a bit shaky when they try to slow it down as the tunes are not quite epic enough. But for good old dirty rock n roll then Underdog are your boys and with a bit of tweaking, some extra grime and oil added to the mix then we should have a new potent force to reckon with.

It's never a good sign when a band look a bit pissed off before they start and this is exactly how The Carter Affair appear as their keyboard is wiped out before they even start playing but it seems to add fuel to their already explosive mix of angular jabs and swathes of melodic feedback. The Carter Affair are one of those bands that have an infinite number of guitar pedals fixed to lumps of wood in front of them and they are put to good use as they wail angrily while guitars jab and hook from different directions before dipping into a sea of melody and drowning you in a huge wave of feedback. Lurking in the middle of this maelstrom are some fantastic vocals that scream out and grab you before being drenched in noise.
The Carter Affair are a truly fantastic band and it's a shame that a few more Pompey types haven't cottoned on to them as they missed a real treat, anyone with a bent for the stylings of Sonic Youth, The Mars Volta etc would probably have loved the angular shards of noise that this band whip up and with a rather stylish frontman sporting a nice waist coat you know they have that slightly eccentric edge that all genii have. This band go down as one of those you must see live at least once if you like a good sonic attack and I for one hope Messclean have them back soon along with the keyboard so we can see them in full flow though it may just destroy the Pyramids.

Headliners tonight are the equally fantastic Contra who left me gobsmacked a few months back at The Wedgewood Rooms so now was a chance to see if they could cut it in a small venue and they don't disappoint. Contra take a more direct approach with their tunes, massive alt-rock slabs of melody that sparkle and shine before splintering and shattering into dense blankets of noise. The old saying goes that you should never judge a book by it's cover, and it couldn't be more true in the case of Contra, as when they wander on the stage you have no idea of what to expect if you've not encountered them before.
But I think those that hung around long enough were soon won over as the beautiful slabs of power hit them and while the vocalist visually puts me in mind of a mix of Ian Curtis and a young Mark E. Smith, he has a fantastic voice and is mesmerizing to watch without actually doing much. Listening to Contra is like having a room full of black velvet, layered with shattered stars then wrapping yourself up in it and being cut to pieces, beautiful but harsh and a rare treat. For me, Contra were the stars tonight with The Carter Affair close behind smashing away at the trail of stardust and shooting off in all directions. Two exceptional bands to round the evening off and we should consider ourselves lucky to have such talent in abundance.