they do similar stuff to us, but they sounded entirely different
the first thing that struck me is that the drummer is excellent - really really good.. good timing, very energetic, busy but didn't get in the way of the vocals and always did excellent, inventive and appropriate musical fills - very impressed
the singer has what you might describe as a Joe Cocker kind of voice… soulful and almost baritone… my feeling was that he's a good singer but some of the material wasn't suited to his voice… where you need a Bono-esque croon (like in the U2 songs obviously), it was absolutely spot on, but for some of the punkier stuff I thought 'great voice, wrong material'… the singer also puts a lot into the performance, physically, which is great to see
vocals were very loud and dry in the mix… I'd have taken em down a touch and added a tiny bit of reverb just to add a bit of 'spread' to them
guitarist was too quiet! the mix was very heavy on the drums and vocals, but not much bass and even less guitar…. more guitar please… you could tell the guitar player could play, and had taste, but i'd have preferred something a bit louder and a bit more impolite...
the bass was unobtrusive, simple and solid… when you have a busy drummer that's often the best way… but I would have liked to have heard much more volume, balls & grind… especially on bass-led things like My Generation and Down In The Tube Station At Midnight… like I said about the guitarist, more volume please! crank it up!
the guitarist and bass player had microphones and did a bit of backing vocals here and there but you wouldn't say backing vocals were a big part of this band
in other words, a very interesting evening… the band did very similar set to us (yes they did Teenage Kicks too, and it went down very well), but did it in a completely different way…
oh, and the place was busy and everyone was well into it
I was gonna come & say hello but you'd all left by the time I got round to it :)