The Espy (23/1/2009)

The Esplanade Hotel
With 3 stages, many beers on tap and free entry this place is awesome! Situated on The Esplanade in St Kilda as the name would suggest and was previously the home of wealthy philanthropist Alfred Felton from 1892 until his death in 1904. Our only complaint about this place would be that the air conditioning system probably needs a renovation, it was very hot and airless particularly in the basement band room. This time possibly due to the free entry seemed to attract a bizarre crowd, but they were alright.

The Detective Social
Indie four piece form Melbourne whom on their MySpace claim to sound like Bloc Party. The singer was arrogant enough to make us want to leave about halfway through their set, with comments like "We're gonna make you dance, whatever it takes!". It was very hot and they didn't play any Justice so we didn't dance. Due to the airless atmosphere we probably could have been in better conditions to see this band and we might have given them more of a chance.

The Sharks, They Bite!
Post Rock (I love Post Rock) 5 piece band that sounded like a cross between early The Mars Volta and At The Drive In sounding band. In fact when we first walked in I thought for a second that they might have been playing a Mars Volta B-Side that I hadn't heard. They also weren't very motivated to play songs, very large pauses (average 3 minute break between songs) but nothing a bit of gigging experience wont fix. I'd say they need a bit more development in the music department, not because of it's quality (it sounded great!) but their unoriginality is something I think looses them a bit of street cred.

Wicked City
Most definitely Rock, slightly Queens of the stone age and definitely not the ACDC kind. Three Piece with a unique excellent drummer/lead singer front man...at the back of the stage; a combination that worked really well, was good to watch but missing the X-factor.

Red Ink
From the mornington peninsula to the espy this indie 4 piece played a decent set. They sounded a little like the Killers and seemed unfazed by being one of the first bands of the night to play.