A free gig is one of life's great little treats , like being given that last Rolo , or that email on a Sunday night from a lecturer with the flu. Doubly so if that free gig happens to be headlined by Bats, Dublin's premier Science-rock mentalists ,and triply so if they happen to have along with them a band as unique and confounding as Ten Past Seven ( 8/10) .The Kerry based instrumentalists get off to a dodgy start , a pudding like sound mix tearing virtually all the power from their bizarre, post-rock explorations. However a couple of songs in , the band take off , and treat us to a set owing debts in equal parts to Russian Circles , Enemies , Mogwai and jazz-stoners Stinking Lizaveta , while forging a path all their own . Some groovy, cow heavy projections and an EP which comes replete with it's own free gift of a piece of slate (I shit you not) , helps mark out TPS as a hugely unique prospect, and ones to watch over the next few months.
Bats (9/10) meanwhile are , tonight , a force of nature. Opening with the spazzed out convulsions of 'Lord Blakeny's Arm' , tonight the band don't hit a sour note , tearing through their science obsessed math rock--post-punk-hardcore hybrid with a refreshing sense of vigour and the clear sense that they're having as much fun playing these songs as people are dancing/moshing/throwing shapes/nodding sagely along to. They also play a healthy ratio of new songs tonight off their forthcoming sophomore effort , which by the sounds of things ,may end up eclipsing the band's last excellent effort , 'Red In Tooth And Claw', blasphemous as that may sound to some .The band finish on the epic , atheistic anthem 'Credulous Credulous' , and as they leave , the sense in the air that a new album can't come quick enough hangs heavy in the air. Excellent stuff.
Stephen O ' Connor
bornagainnihilist@gmail(dot)com
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