Adam Franklin - Drivin' on his own.

With drum machine filling the beat duties, due to being ‘in between personnel’ Do The Robot get tonight’s proceedings underway. Despite the near empty floor, they deliver an imperturbable set. Their interpretation of The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ and original ‘Apples’ – with it’s ethereal shoegaze qualities, prove Do The Robot to be an admirable forerunner for what is to come.

Mr Screamfeeder, Tim Steward, being more than at home in solo guise, sports new backup leading up to his sophomore release. The five piece deliver tracks from the well-received debut, ‘How Does It End’ together with new, soon-to-be-recorded material. The quintet are visibly enjoying themselves as they meander through ‘Sign From A Star’ and ‘Not The Same’ and have no problems in showing equal exuberance for the newer, arguably harder edged material.

The up tempo latter part of the set, of mainly new produce projects extremely well and all looks good for the start of recording in early April.

The crowd seems to have hardly increased at all and this is somewhat disappointing as Adam Franklin sets up two amps and his Jazzmaster on an all but empty stage.

Judging from his setup, there’ll be no lofty walls of sound tonight, a-la Franklin’s Swervedriver days. Instead, we are witness to a stripped back recollection of the man’s vast catalogue from Swervedriver through to his recent solo release ‘Bolts Of Melody’ material, with some Toshack Highway balancing out the mix.

When all is said and done, there is little difference from the latter SWD releases and Bolts Of Melody and it’s easy to see who must have carried the bulk of the writing duties. From the opening bars of set starter ‘Birdsong’ (Bolts Of Melody) to ‘Electric 77’ from 99th Dream, and everything in between, the transition between songs appears rather seamless. The one exception being his cover of ABBA’s ‘S.O.S.’, more so out of sheer surprise than anything else. His brooding take on this ‘classic’ is enjoyable nonetheless.

While it is a solo tour for Franklin’s current release, it’s mainly the SWD numbers that get the greatest nods of approval. While the dreaded locks may no longer be there, his skill around the fret board combined with his sweet yet lightly gravelled vocals mean only one thing to most: Swervedriver. Sure, it was going to be difficult to reproduce the tracks off ‘Raise’, and accordingly, they weren’t put out tonight but with tunes like ‘99th Dream’, ‘The Other Jesus’ and ‘Stellar Caprice’, Swervies all around were sporting neat grins.

An enjoyable set that neatly covered all the bases, with the emphasis cleverly directed where it needed to be.

Lets hope the reformed Swervedriver makes it to Oz when they get it on the road.

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