I turned up late into the gig, due to an extended encounter with a jellyfish. The lady at the door of Fowlers Live told me that I had missed the first act, but the tone of her voice spoke of all manner of vicious accusations too vulgar and degraded to try and describe here in print. I could have easily retorted with the plain and simple, “Since when does a self respecting rock band begin on time?” but thought better of it and gave her the old smile ’n’ shrug. This exchange accompanied by the word of a reliable punter lead me to believe that missing Taught by Animals’ opening slot was as much to my detriment as theirs. So terribly sorry chaps, I rarely forego a chance to see someone’s slot opening.

Jellyfish be damned though if I wasn’t getting up close and personal for Fire! Santa Rosa Fire! A flock of well-dressed young indie girls lined the front of the stage. The drummer was getting settled at his kick drum, covered in glass squares emulating a giant mirror ball while the lead singer took the pre-set lull to give the nod to the late Boris Yeltzin. The band winds up and lets rip with a rush of thumping inter-planetary space rock. The groove slowly rises up to hit the audience like a new dawn and people begin to move. The feeling is akin to being on a rocket ship hurtling directly towards the sun, with all the astro-bodies gliding past and on a NASA built stage in the middle of the ship is the perfect band for the occasion, playing a fanfare to our iminent doom. There is no fear here however. Purposeful, careless, trance-like the band played and danced and rocked, all the while the audience reflecting the high powered disco-rock chi. Fast-paced, hard hitting, there was no room aboard for those not ready to sweat. FSRF encored with a Justin Timberlake cover that shocked and amused, and displayed superior talent in what I would consider Advanced Level Turd Polishing. To use the phrase of the lead singer, the gig was ‘Yeti’ amazing, and as I blow a smoke ring developed out of this imported cigar, I say with all sincerity, “These boys are gonna go far!”.

The Midnight Juggernaughts I admire for their quirky, funky tracks that hit my ears occasionally during my radio appreciation sessions. From what I saw of their music on screen I was quite certain these darlings of the now would be treating us all to a fairly respectable live show. They blasted straight in with some thrash metal introductory assault, aimed at getting the gig intensity to full power. The grooves came out dirty and heavy. Their roots are in rock, but there can be no question that they had come here to make people dance. The vocals I find bizarre- with the essence of eighties Bowie and the delivery of a bad party song like The Monster Mash. It does however provide a great deal of contrast to the music.

MJ’s phat eighties electro beats are very danceable in a shaking, jerky sort of way and seems to be the perfect music for one hand in the air pump dancing while remaining completely impossible to ‘robot’ to. I have no problems with the simplicity of their music, they know how to write hooks and how to ride ‘em, and sometimes running with the groove is more important than lacing it with superfluous complexities. Compared to their support act however, they struggled to connect with their audience. One guy stood stuck behind a stack of keyboards, another hidden behind a pile of drums; the third lost in his imaginary on-stage bedroom making out with his guitar. They have plenty of energy, just they can’t connect with the crowd. We are not treated to any friendly banter or acknowledgment of our presence but the people I was with had said that this was ‘not them at their best’. I still couldn’t help feeling that this indeed was a band sent back in time by an evil Record Company to capture the essence of the 80’s to re-package and sell it to the youth culture of today.

I wouldn’t recommend the Midnight Juggernaughts as a live experience, but if you haven’t caught some of their tracks yet they are definitely a lot of fun and worth a listen. My night’s highlight was definitely local act Fire! Santa Rosa Fire! Get onto to these guys now so you can say you “liked them before they were popular” to all your friends. After all, isn’t that really what music is all about?