As I walked into the Cooperage on Monday night I wasn’t expecting much as it was Open Mic Night and for a lot of the bands it was their first gig. However the new and improved Cooperage is a lot more upmarket and impressive now after recently undergoing many renovations (says its website). The back of the stage had a black and white painting of a city, which was a cool artistic setting for the bands, along with the colourful flash lights and the massive amps either side.

The first band to grace the stage was The Irony of it all. It was their first gig so they were all a little nervous but excited to play on stage. The Cooperage was very quiet as it was only around 8pm but they started with a fast-moving punk song, which showed off the drummer’s talents. Their set consisted off a couple of punk songs, a catchy emo number and some inspired by Oasis. I really enjoyed their performance as they weren’t afraid to play all types of music and the singer’s voice was impressive although he needed to turn up the volume. They also need to find their own sound but I guess that will come in time. Speaking to the soundman outside he said that The Irony of It All needed to listen to each other more and the singer needed be more confident and sing much louder so he could be heard above the drums but they were talented and had an entertaining stage presence for their first performance.

The second band that arrived for their first gig were called Pigs in Zen. This four-piece band from Cornwall stepped up on stage all pretty confident and all sporting long frizzy brown hairdos! Their music was hard rock with a funk feel to it and looked and sounded as though their influences were Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I thought their guitarist, Tom Hart was very talented and probably the most enthusiastic but it went well for their first attempt. Their Jimi Hendrix cover, Fire, was one of the best songs they performed and as the crowd grew they became more confident.

The final band I saw that night certainly made an entrance into Cooperage with about thirty followers to support the band. As soon as they arrived they signed in and went on stage to get ready. They were in their twenties and called themselves No Ones Child. The venue filled up and they began with a couple of their own songs that had influences from Muse, SOAD and Rage Against the Machine. This band radiated with energy and livened up the crowd. The best bit of their set were the Rage covers, which included Bullet In The Head that the singer did extremely well, adding his own style to the famous rapping. Everyone’s heads turned as “A bullet in your head” was screamed and echoed through the Cooperage and it got one hell of applause afterwards. He was certainly entertaining to watch, and halfway through asked the male members of the crowd to go up and “feel his hot, sweaty body”, which was very amusing to watch when all the men went up and stroked him! To finish they played a mellow emo song that calmed everyone down to listen to the crazy singer’s brilliant voice; the song was really moving and was a good ending to the great night.

The Cooperage didn’t have the exciting atmosphere that you get in the popular Phoenix, however it was free, fun and worth going along to listen to the new talent that’s forever growing in Plymouth.

Written by Megan Roach