I wrote this....

I'm entering the T Break competition for music journalists with this piece. 500 words is looooong for a review! Tell me what you think. Leave me a comment at the end.

Waiting by the old piano in the Night and Day Café is an exciting but nervous experience. Austin Texas’ Voxtrot have been on stage for about 20 minutes but haven’t played a note. They are anxiously checking and rechecking equipment that doesn’t seem to work for them. The lead singer Ramesh Srivastava dons his guitar and steps to the front stony faced only to encounter a silent microphone. He looks to his right to see the sound engineer rushing to his desk. They’re ready to begin.

Ramesh apologises for the technical difficulties and launches energetically but hesitantly into “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives”. The vocals are muffled and Keyboard player Jared Van Fleet, also known as Sparrow Hall, frantically signals for them to be turned up. Something else is way too loud and the band is looking nervous. Ramesh looks uncomfortable but storms through the first song with his usual excitement and vigour. He looked much more comfortable on stage at Optimo in Glasgow last year where his boundless energy resulted in a dramatic end to the gig. Ramesh was dragged offstage before the last song after cutting his head on a low monitor. Images of him bloodied but still singing appeared on you tube within a day.

After the disappointing first song, a quick scan of the crowd shows the majority squeezing their way closer to the front. Voxtrot have overcome the problems and the crowd want more. The far from sold out Night and Day is intimate enough to reward persistence, being at the front gives a rare glimpse of the band close up. Drummer, Matt Simon, looks bored to begin with and the rest play stony faced through the first few tracks where the obvious lack of a sound check causes problem after problem. The silence between songs feels like respect, but the nervous faces on stage must think it’s something more sinister.

The band soon relaxes though and Van Fleet dances behind his instruments and bass player Jason Chronis sings along. Voxtrot storm through the rest of their optimistic poppy set with Van Fleet working up a sweat behind his multiple keyboards. Ramesh really looks as though he’s enjoying himself and dances awkwardly but energetically through song after song of catchy rocky pop. Not even a broken microphone stand as Ramesh takes to the keyboard for “Soft and Warm” can stop him bouncing along. Voxtrot have been likened to Belle and Sebastian and the uplifting keyboard effects only back this up.

Voxtrot don’t say much during this gig, Jason Chronis reluctantly takes the mic, as Ramesh tunes his guitar for the third time, and introduces two new songs before giggling nervously and slinking towards the back staring at his bass. The gig ended on a massive high with “Missing Pieces”. The band overcoming all earlier obstacles to play like we knew they could. This might be the last time Voxtrot play the Night and Day Café but it certainly won’t be the last we hear of them.