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The Dudley Corporation / Econoline / Hythe - London, Upstairs at the Garage Thursday 25th January 2001 A quick drive across Islington to the Garage and I managed to get to the venue in time to catch the first band Hythe. They are two guitarists who sat down throughout the performance, a drummer, and a very large bassist who stood awkwardly at the front, dominating the stage. To me they sounded like Dif Juz, (for those youngsters out there, they were a 4AD band who were probably one of the 1st bands to have no vocals during the early 80's) - they had a warm, strange guitar sound, and some very good tunes up their respective sleeves. I even heard John Kennedy (Xfm) ranting on about them on the drive home - high praise indeed. For me the jury is still out on Econoline. There are some good tunes, some nice all out noisy, messy, distorted parts, but, for me, something is lacking. Possibly the vocals could be turned down or even left out in some places, but as this was the first time I'd seen them live, I'll reserve judgement for another day. (They don't sound anything like they do on record by the way!) The Dudley Corporation - weird! Never having heard them before, it took about 4-5 numbers to get into it, but it rocked in a different sort of way. (I have no idea what that means!). Twitchy high guitar sound, played at breakneck speed, this is certainly a band with an original sound. After each song ended Dudley gave a high-pitched and shortened "thank you", a la Melt Banana. Afterwards Dudley said that it had been a very poor gig for them. Again I guess I'll have to see them on a better day. Funniest bit of the night - Dudley breaking his guitar and having to scamper to the back room to repair it, leaving Joss and the bass player to jam bits of Slayer - this managed to get Kavus from The Monsoon Bassoon jumping about like a loony! (No change there then!) Very funny. skippy

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