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I missed the start of Nightmoves set as I had to finish the drink in my glass before I was allowed upstairs with my next pint in a plastic cup.

The last few numbers they did though were performed professionally and with the intention of entertaining the sparse crowd. In this they largely succeeded, although their The Sisters Of Mercy by numbers circa 1984 act did begin to grate after a while and there wasn’t enough smoke.

And then they completely surprised me by ending with an excellent version of “Body Electric” which actually made you feel like climbing the walls.

Rhombus were introduced and stormed through their first number. This was much better and the set seemed full of promise until the drum machine decided that the next song was going to be three seconds long no matter how many times it was tried and that was it for a few moments while they sobered it up.

After a short story from the compere, Rhombus reappeared looking slightly stressed but very professionally continued their set. Being completely unfamiliar with the majority of their material, I can only say that it was upbeat and entertaining. Well worth splashing £8.50 on their new CD.

After asking permission to do one more song, they ended with the excellent “If You Haven't Been Shot (You Should Be)”, which made it all worthwhile.

The venue had filled up by the time NFD took to the stage and there was a sense of anticipation in the air.

With not much space on the stage it was a tight fit for the band but they managed to overcome this constraint to hammer their way into the first track, last year’s single “Light My Way”, with Peter 'Bob' White straining against his microphone stand and spitting out the vocals.

The sound was stunning, not too loud, but powerful and aggressive. Not for many years have I seen a band that produces such power.

“My Possession” was next, followed by the beast that is “Turbine”, Bob growling out “Nothing lasts forever, nothing lasts forever”. “Stronger”, “Unleashed”, and “ Darkness Falls ” were next, Tony Pettitt’s bass driving the power of the music throughout.

Bob took on some guitar duties for the excellent “One Moment Between Us”, which was followed by “Descent” and then “Caged”.

The soon-to-be released next single “When The Sun Dies” was introduced. The band mentioned that this was the first time they had played it so there was the possibility of them mucking it up, but it seemed to come off OK. More quality output to look forward to.

“Move In Closer” and “So Let It Begin” closed the show, prior to which the band thanked us for coming and mentioned that they would be recording a video for the new single at one of the London dates later this month.

After a fair amount of encouragement, NFD returned to the stage and Bob announced that they were going to play “A few of Tony’s songs now”. And the treat began.

“Pray now…”. The familiar opening to “Psychonaut” took us into over 10 minutes of delight, with Bob crouched over the microphone, cigarette in hand. The crowd were overjoyed to hear this and what followed was completely unexpected.

The one cover turned into two as we were powered through “Preacher Man” and then three as the set ended with “Moonchild”.

An excellent gig which ended on an unexpected and welcome high.

The thing is NFD were great on the night and no longer, in my opinion, really need to do the cover versions at the end, however welcome they may be. Their own material stands up to scrutiny on its own merit.

Catch them at a venue near you as soon as possible.

Setlist;

Intro, Light My Way, My Possession, Turbine (Nothing Lasts Forever), Stronger, Unleashed, Darkness Falls, One Moment Between Us, Descent, Caged, When The Sun Dies, Move In Closer, So Let It Begin, [Break], Psychonaut, Preacher Man, Moonchild.

© Livemusicreview 2007

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