As soon as Tai Tai Alibi came onto the stage the atmosphere changed
dramatically. These guys were veterans to the Underground circuit and
this time they came with a new Bassist, Rafe. He fitted in really well,
providing some back-up vocals and looking like one of the seasoned
veterans. Though, I couldn’t really hear him over Tim’s unique voice
which immediately struck a chord with my heart as I became ‘Lost In You‘.
I could see why these guys opened for the Manic Street Preachers. They
are that good. They had the crowd cheering before they had even
finished the first song. Wow!
After a roar of applause from the crowd, the guys went onto play ‘Strawman‘
which sounded a bit like Soundgarden, one of my favourite bands. They
asked if the music was loud enough, which it was. I could feel the
chords throughout my body. The crowd seemed to enjoy what they heard
and even jumped around a little bit.
The guys cycled through their set almost effortlessly and played one of their more well know numbers, ‘Cycle‘.
This was definitely a crowd favourite. More than likely many of the
people there would have heard this song off the Underground Compilation
CD #1.
It is definitely one of my favourite songs off the CD. It is full of
catchy riffs and lyrics which makes you want to sing along to, “Too
late, too late, too late, too late! I’m falling down!”
Their fourth song, ‘Little More Empty‘, was a song about
people buying shit that they don’t need. Definitely a crime that I am
guilty of too, so I could relate. This song started with some heavy
drums that put us into jungle mode, until the guitar and vocals kicked
in. Then it had a totally different feel. 90’s grunge with beautiful
guitar solos and a great drumbeat. Matt on drums gave us a great
performance. What I noticed about him was that he was full of
expression and had a good rapport with Chris, the guitarist, who would
turn to play to him and get him in on the action. Tai Tai Alibi have a
great stage presence, all the members of the band, and it is really
obvious that they enjoyed performing on stage for us. They all had
smiles on their faces and moved along to the beat.
The next song started slowly, but soulfully, with another dramatic
drumbeat. Tim continued to keep the crowd enthralled with his superb
voice while he sang ‘Run‘. But, we did not feel the need to run away.
In their last song, ‘Today‘, they asked the crowd to “Throw
your hands up” and the crowd did so enthusiastically. But, by this
stage people were filtering out of The Melting Pot, having been
musically exhausted by the band’s unrelenting musicianship. The guys
really beat it out at the end and finished with a huge climax that tore
the roof down. Drummer rolls and all. Really a great performance by all
the members of the band. I don’t have anything negative to say about
these guys, except that when the crowd cheered for one more song, they
didn’t answer the call. It was a long night. But, oh what a night.
Cain (F.B.I. vocalist)
