Thanks to Rebecca Kidman for this
review of Four Star Mary's gig at the Boat Race, Cambridge on 5 September.
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Since
Buffy the Vampire Slayer first hit TV screens in 1997, it has had a
reputation for its brilliant rock and alternative music (provided by
mostly unknown bands) featured in The Bronze, the local hangout for the
infamous Scooby Gang. Four Star Mary are the band who provide music
for Dingoes Ate My Baby, the band that character Oz "plays" lead
guitar in. Four Star Mary is made up of Tad (lead vocals), Zu
(guitar), Dave (also on guitar and the newest member, who happens to have
a penchant for wearing shiny silver trousers), Steve (bass) and Chris
(drums) and have been nicknamed "The greatest band in the US that
no-one had ever heard of." Which after their gig at The Boat
Race in Cambridge, I'm very inclined to agree with.
I decided to attend
the gig after hearing about it through various Buffy fan sources
and I will admit, if I hadn't been a Buffy fan I wouldn't have gone
to the gig. I arrived at the rather small, dingy looking bar at
around 8.15pm to meet a couple of friends, who were actually as excited as
me to finally see the "Dingoes" in action!
At around 8.50pm,
FSM's support act, Suriki came on and
warmed things up. During the course of their set, we discovered that
they were very worried of the reception they were going to get in
Cambridge considering they originate from Oxford, but I'm sure I wasn't
the only one very impressed with their slightly unusual variety of rock
music. Along with the usual set up of guitars and drums, there was a
synthesier/keyboard which gave their music a slightly more individual
touch. The band also seemed to have their very own PR assistant, in
the form of lead singer Jason who more than once encouraged us to by
Suriki's Turnpike EP! It must have worked though, as
afterwards I dutifully bought it and it hasn't left my CD player since the
gig.
FSM eventually came on
and this is when the evening finally began. Before, the audience has
been slightly bopping to the sound of Suriki but when FSM came on, it was
full on headbanging. I imagine that a lot of the audience were fans
of Buffy like myself. We were all singing along to such fan
favourites as 'Dilate', 'Shadows' and 'Fate'. It was also strange
because you could honestly believe you were listening to their CDs it was
so good - some people even think they sound better live than on the
CDs. At the end of each song, Tad explained where they were from etc
for those that didn't know and gave thanks to the show Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, at which point the crowd was screaming...well I know I
was!
Things started to slow
down in terms of rocking tunes towards the middle of the set, though I
belive it was just me getting wound up that they hadn't played the
favourite, Pain (featured on the Buffy soundtrack).
But before you knew it, the rock was back and FSM finished off with a
fantastic rendition of 'Pain' and the whole bar was shaking with
excitement. They were going to finish there but then came back for a
couple more because they believed that the Cambridge crowd was the best
they'd seen in the whole of their UK tour. Well, that's what Tad
said...
What occurred to me
throughout the night is how genuinely nice and friendly both bands were
toward the fans. Especially as I had heard that they weren't feeling
their best due to a bout of colds! I would have expected for FSM to
have a few egos after appearing in TV shows and the like in the US, but
they were nothing but gentlemen, both bands watched each other's sets and
mingled with the crowd. They then promised to meet fans and sign
autographs. Within just a few minutes they came back out to sign
stuff and even had their own queuing system to get things signed quickly
and efficiently. I met each of the band and they just treated you
like a normal human being. Steve was very apologetic that he didn't
spell my name right and Dave was quite distraught that I didn't get my
album sleeve back, though things turned out happily in the end. It
was a night I definitely won't forget for a long time to come!
I thoroughly recommend
you check out this band and their support act Suriki. Both were
absolutely excellent live and I think they all deserve to make it in the
music industry, whether they will though is up to whether the media will
give them the big break they need.
Thanks goes to
everyone at Repeat Records
who helped make this review possible. Four Star Mary's new single,
'Marlene'/'I think' is out now, available from Repeat Records - visit the
website for more details. Four Star Mary also have an official
website and an unofficial UK fan
site. Back to
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