Escapefrom ’98/Draw Me Ugly/Escape December

Inferno, Bournemouth

The Inferno in Bournemouth have recently started two regular live music nights, firstly, Thursday Evenings is the best in local acoustic acts, and Saturday nights is band nights.Tonight three local very different Bournemouth bands have been lined up for the evenings entertainment.

Escape December 1

First on at around 9pm are “Escape December” a female fronted band that have recently arrived on the local scene and seem to be playing every venue that will have them. The four piece band are fronted by Samantha Bower, at first you would be mistaken into thinking that they were an Avril Lavine tribute act such is the likeness of Samantha to Avril, not only that when Samantha starts singing she puts on a fake American accent. The band can certainly play, and their punk pop tunes are not unpleasant to listen to. But the band need to have serious think about their image, they need to be themselves rather than copy someone so iconic. The band plough through a 30 minute set of mostly original material that shows plenty of promise with guitarist Sam Taylor also taking turns on vocals and sounding really good. A passable cover of “Blink 182” “All The Small Things” was thrown in for good measure. It was disappointing though that there was little interaction with the audience, hopefully this was just an off night for “Escape December”. Lets hope there are more positive things to come from them in the future.

Draw Me Ugly

At the beginning of the 2012 “Draw Me Ugly” played a handful of gigs around the Bournemouth area impressing all who saw, sadly until now that have been off the live music circuit due to the fact that guitarist Phil Allen had major surgery on his hand, thankfully the medics have done their job and Phil is back with guitar in hand ready to once again show off his talents. Lead singer Ed Gould arrives on stage and states “We are Draw Me Ugly, we haven’t got any Cd’s or T-Shirts for sale but we only have 30 minutes”. The band have a very original sound that incorporates rock with funk fused with dub and ska. The incredible mix makes for some great entertainment with their own original songs such as opener “Kidnapped” and the very funked up “I’ve Been Here Before”. Despite some technical problems the band makes it through the excellent 7 song set with moments to spare, producing some magical guitar moments to really savour. Now that they are back remember their name and make sure you check them out soon, you won’t regret it.

Escape From ’98 1–2

Escapefrom ’98 are tonight’s headliners. Interestingly this band have been a three piece up until now and tonight for the 1st time in Bournemouth the unveil their new second guitarist James Self, who seems a little nervous, but hey everyone is allowed to be a little nervous the first time. The band kick off with “All I Wanted (Was to Be In A Punk Rock Band)”, vocalist Lee is singing the words like he really means them. The songs revolve around large amounts of tongue in cheek humour with the band’s banter priceless, James breaks a string, so while he is fixing it, the band start off an impromptu jam, with drummer Mandy doing a rap part way through before launching into Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. Sadly James continues to struggle and makes no real impact on the band’s punk pop sound, guitarist Lennon seems to be doing just fine on his own. The band debut two brand new songs “Staying Home” and “Those Days Gone By” which seem to have a sizeable influence from American punks The Offspring (is it no coincidence that The Offspring’s new album is called “Days Go By”?). You honestly cannot help like this band the tunes are catchy and the element of fun is always at every gig. I’m sure once new guitarist James is up to speed we may see a new dimension to their sound, but from tonight’s showing the three piece are doing just fine.

Set Lists
Draw Me Ugly
Kidnapped
Nairorobbery
Man Who Won
Buds Off
I’ve Been Here Before
Total Recall
Monster

Escapefrom’ 98
All I Wanted(Was to Be In A Punk Rock Band)
Staying Home
Ben’s Mum
Punk Rock Princess
Way Man
Hit Me Baby One More Time(Britney Spears Cover)
The Wrong Side
Those Days Gone By
Outskarts
Banking
Secret Auntie

Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfIR0OJprU0&feature=plcp

Band Links
http://drawmeugly.com/
http://escapefrom98.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/EscapeDecember

Review Pictures and Rather Dark videos by Dave Chinery (Chinners).