LONG SHORE DRIFT
The Railway, Winchester, UK - 28th August 2010
Line-up: Long Shore Drift
Review by Jon Wilde
Southampton 5-piece band Long Shore Drift is an interesting proposition. Have a listen to the tracks on their MySpace site - http://www.myspace.com/officiallongshoredrift - and you might come away not sure what sort of band they are. I like that. The fact one minute they are playing a near-ambient softly-softly pop, and the next they are knocking on the door of Mr. H. Metal's house makes them a darn site more intriguing than a lot of groups out there.
The band look interesting too. Drummer Dawid Szczyrski is suspiciously like Danny Gokey (from American Idol 2009), rhythm guitarist Paul Cooke is a more human version of Richmond (Noel Fielding) from the IT Crowd, singer Aaron World is a short-haired version of Jim Morrison, bassist Dom Bradey looks like an escapee from an early 1980s punk band, and lead guitarist Joe Percival is a dead ringer for Jason Segel from "How I Met Your Mother".
When the band came on, the main room at The Railway wasn't massively populated. Shame, as the lack of support at the start obviously took it out of front man Aaron. It was clear his heart wasn't in the performance from start to finish, even when the room started to fill. His vocals were where they should have been, but this is clearly a guy who likes to feed off a big enthusiastic crowd. With half the punters standing around chatting to each other, that interaction was sorely missing.
Still, the music was arguably better than the snippets on the website. The best moments were a fine combination of big guitars, an even bigger rhythm section and some great trance-like vocals. It wasn't perfect - the band need more anthemic tracks and more willingness to give it their all when there is little feedback - but it was a surprisingly enjoyable set.
If you can catch these guys on when of their good days I reckon you might just be in for a treat.
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