Panic Room/Vending Machine Repairmen

Mr Kyps, Poole

A mild Thursday night & we are looking forward to the long awaited return to these shores of Northern rockers ‘David R. Black’. Sadly they’ve decided on a no show & ‘apparently’ not bothered letting the venue know either! Great start-not! As a last minute replacement we welcome on stage a covers band in the shape of ‘Vending Machine Repairmen’. Great name,nothing like having a moniker that couldn’t describe you less! They are a confident 5 piece who play well known covers from down the years. I’m not overkeen on the guitars however, there’s a real keyboard-esque element to the sound. This aside they are a decent warm-up for the headliners and end their set with the Hazel O’Connor classic ‘Will You’.

Headliners Panic Room are welcomed on stage by a sparse crowd. Another 5 piece who play (to this reviewer) MOR tinged with elements of ‘soft Rock’. I find their myspace blog really interesting, they claim to ‘blaze together a fusion of Rock,Pop,Indie,Funk & Hypnotic sounds. On tonights evidence there’s no Indie, unless you cite singer Anne’s obvious All About Eve leanings. The band open with ‘Song For Tomorrow’ which is a good place to start. In Anne Marie Helder this band have a vocalist with confidence and good range. In fact,all the band come across as confident & talented,the problem is they just don’t excite. There’s a lady to my left who’s been asleep for most of their set! On ‘The Fall’ we get a slower,more mellow little number with heartfelt lyrics, but the song itself is frankly disappointing.

Gallery: 1–2–3

With Panic Room their obvious talent lies in their harder edged material. They return to form with ‘Reborn’ and ‘Cat’ but take the pace down once again with ‘Exodus’,a song about break-up. There is a strong middle 8 from Paul (guitars), clearly a great musician as he noodles away in his own shoegazing style. If I’m going to be critical I just don’t see where the keyboards fit in their sound-Panic Room would be so much better as a 4 piece. Yatim (bass) is confident throughout while Gavin (drums) is faultless. ‘Bitches’ is one of their better songs tonight and they end with the title track from their latest release ‘Satellite’. They leave to good applause but return for a one song encore with ‘Sandstorms’. If you like MOR/soft Rock/ballads etc. then Panic Room are for you. I wont admit to being a convert but I wish them well.

Setlist
Song For Tomorrow
Freedom |To Breathe
5th Amendment
Picking Up Knives
The Fall
Reborn
I am a Cat
Yasoni
Promises
Bitches
Dark Star

Satellite
Sandstorms

Videos

http://www.vendingmachineweb.co.uk
http://www.panicroom.org.uk/

Review Ross Ferrone
Pictures and Videos by Chinners