A View From The Back Of The Room: Bigfoot (Live Review By Paul)

Bigfoot, Fuel Rock Club, Cardiff

Maybe we've just been spoilt in recent weeks with our gigs. Maybe the sun and beer back in July messed with our judgement and maybe we got caught up in the social media frenzy. All I know is that this gig was a crushingly underwhelming evening.

Arriving in time to catch most of The Boom Sons (6) set, the three piece from The Rhondda grooved away with their fuzzy hard rock sound. Performing to 12 people is unlikely to be the most inspirational event of your life but the diminutive Vanessa Morgan, grappling with a giant bass guitar didn't worry with a solid vocal performance. Playing a range of tracks from their debut release Weird is the New Black there was some welcome variation in their style although set closer Move Your Deriere reverted to type to close the set. Whilst the band were okay, their inter song manner was pretty chaotic. Something to work on but a bit of promise.

Most of Bigfoot’s traveling entourage slowly wandered into the room for main support from the dirty ‘Port Everyday Heroes (7). These boys had played the Friday night at Steelhouse and earned some positive reaction. The crowd had swelled to around 35 by now, although we later realised this was mainly due to the band's friends and family. In fact, there were probably fewer than 10 non-associated punters in the room. Everyday Heroes are South Wales’ Answer to Northern Ireland’s Trucker Diablo, full of Black Stone Cherry, Nickleback and the like. Led by the towering Luke Phillips who shoulders both lead vocals and lead guitar duties the band are competent if a little routine. Their supporters certainly increased both volume and temperature but their set went on about four songs too long; there's only so much BSC lite I can take.

Back in the summer we had been sufficiently impressed by the headliners to purchase advance tickets for this event. Social media suggested that it was heading for a sell out. With a large percentage of the crowd having left after Everyday Heroes but bolstered by their own supporters, this was clearly a load of bollocks. With possibly 30-40 people in the room Bigfoot (5) hit the stage in confident manner, riffs wailing but Antony Ellis’s vocals way down in the mix. This continued for the next four songs by which time some of the audience including their “supporters” had resorted to chatting and taking selfies. Bigfoot’s songs were bland, repetitive and thoroughly uninspiring. Maybe it was the sound which once again influenced the opinion, but I was expecting much better. Sadly, by 10.50pm we'd had sufficient Bigfoot for one year and headed out.

So what did we learn? Don't believe the hype. There was plenty of room and this was nowhere near capacity. If  you are the main band, sort your sound out. It was fine for the two before you. Fuel is still a crap venue for live music. And finally, reaching a wider audience still relies on spreading music. Some EPs on your merchandise stand would have been welcomed.