Bands: Evil Scarecrow, Ten Cent Toy, Outcast the Plague & Metaprism

Date: 16/02/2014

Venue: Sound Circus, Bournemouth

The evening started off well with a Sunday roast at my parents, which was delectable.  Anyway after this I travelled by automobile to the chain ferry at Sandbanks, “balls” I missed the ferry; this is significant because it meant I was late. Some might say its fashionable to be late, but when music is involved it is a tad shameful.

Anyway I arrived in one piece and paid my entrance fee, I then walked down the fairy lit gateway to Sound Circus.  I say I missed the first two bands, but I got a bit of the second (Outcast the Plague) and they rocked.  I thought then I had made the right decision in coming, even if I did look like a nark among the head bangers and 21^st centaury punks.  I met my friend and we got a drink and smoked some fags.

The second band Ten Cent Toy were really cool, the lead singer fought through his pain with enough gruffness to frighten a whole gang of children.  A handsome man with dreads, he was in control and performed well; I thought in the smoke filled room that I had been overcome by some kind of crazy demonic possession.  A young man, with tape stuck to his body patching up his wounded soul and young woman gyrated in the cages to the hard core sounds, this I thought was the headline; they were really good.  Guitars in hand they made me remember why I love the underworld.  I looked around at the audience and saw many people who were there because this is what they loved, they were real, sincere people that love music and love to have a great time.

During the interval we did not eat ice cream, but my companion and I drank and discussed the man dressed as a rather crude robot.  I must admit I thought it kind of odd; but I had not been a minion of the Evil Scarecrows before.  Why a minion, well you see as the band started and coaxed the crowd into participation, that evil indoctrination they taught me in school dwelled on my mind.  What prey tell is this Charlie?  This is the indoctrination that a strong man must lead, and not follow.  Yes I know, silly isn’t it!

I was in for a treat this time, for this band had a great sense of humour, and it was not long before I was holding up my claw with everyone else.  This says nothing about doing the Robotrone; something I thought I was too old for before became the reason why I was there.  For I was a robot, like everyone else, I was a follower and that was okay because I felt part of something again.  And all to the sound of a bassist that looked like a Nordic God, a drummer that was a freak show in himself, a lead guitarist that was owned by rock and roll, a lead singer that could bend the crowd like Uri Geller bends a spoon and that is not forgetting the delightful keyboardist; a horror doll that hypnotised me with one look.  This was a great event, it was more than an event it was a performance and my only regret of the evening was that I did not do the waltz with my young companion; for this, it seemed, would have recapitulated my youth a little more than had actually been done by this whole experience.  It is not often a band makes me laugh from my belly, and when this band did with their choreographed head banging and swaying I knew I was somewhere I wanted to be; at home in my heart.

And here they are doing the Robotron: