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The Crookes

Another trip to Barfly on 15th April. Not quite a complete random gig; we chose The Crookes as the band members are/were all students in Sheffield (my old university haunt) & the band is named after the city suburb. Something of an oblique reminiscence, then. They've also been on 6 Music recently.

Thankfully, it was one of those period nights where the support bands were at least as good as (possibly better than) the headline act. Toy Horses and Zenyth completed Thursdays lineup. Toy Horses were fun and quite infective. Very enjoyable and maybe even the highlight of the night. Zenyth were more in the South Wales rock mode, in my ears quite obviously influenced by Stereophonics etc (the list of influences on their myspace is also quite telling) but not disturbingly so. They weren't as exciting as Toy Horses but still an enjoyable set.

The Crookes, for all the 'great new band' hype, were again ok but not an awful lot better. Someone needs to teach them onstage banter, though, as in this respect they came of weakest of the 3 bands. Their songs were reasonable but seemed relatively samey. Their style (both music and clothes) reminded us both of The Sugars, but in that comparison The Sugars win! Maybe also a touch of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis.

Toy Horses have an album preview online; I'm not sure The Crookes are at that stage yet but plenty of tracks on their myspace.
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