A rather mixed up night at Duchy College began with me arriving too early, and getting caught in the rain. However, this didn’t dampen my spirits (although it did dampen my hair – haha) and as we were finally let in, I was looking forward to a night of some pure Cornish talent!

First band of the night was Dosage, a heavy metal screamo band. They were a little rough around the edges and the crowd didn’t seem too impressed. The whole set seemed kind of fuzzy, if you will. However, there was a bit of excitement when the guitarist ripped his nail off and bled all over a (borrowed) guitar, so it wasn’t all bad.

Next came Valhalla. Someone I had been talking to beforehand insisted that Valhalla couldn’t be playing, since they were old and dead, then realised she was thinking of Val Halen…but anyway. It was a good, tight set; a lot of talent in this band. Some nice guitar playing going on here; it was very impressive. However, one fault: they played too many covers. Very well played covers, and good choices, by the likes of Nirvana and Stone Sour – but I’d have been interested to hear some more of their own sounds.

Up next were heavy metal four piece None of The Above. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from this band – I’d heard them briefly before at a practice of theirs and I thought they were a bit shit, really, but tonight, they changed my opinion. They delivered a tight set with some awesome guitar solos – despite the fact that the guitarist had a recovering broken finger! Not much of a stage presence bar the bassist who had crazy hair, but apart from that, very few faults. And there was a great cover of the Ghostbusters theme tune, which – despite technical difficulties when the vocalist tried to play guitar – got a little crowd dancing.

Last band were Vinegar Stroke. I’ve seen this band once before, although I was rather wankered, so have no recollection of it. Anyway, very impressive set - fantastic guitarist and lots of nakedness! (Why is it that whenever I go to a gig in Cornwall some band always winds up naked?!)

After the organised line-up, there was a bit of a jamming session, which was interesting; heard a bit of old school Source Badger ‘Jazz Metal’ as well, which was a bit of a blast from the past.

Overall, a good night and although the venue wasn’t quite up to it, the turn out was reasonable and everyone had a bit of a giggle. And that’s the most important thing, I suppose.

Written by Luce