Live Review: Mezzanine, Puck, Childsaint, Hyla - The Bird

Friends and fans were to quick to pack out the The Bird, a place so cool the lights are confined to cages and shoes hang from the ceiling.

The first band to rock socks off their mini fan-base were HYLA, their garage/noise pop style and fuzzy riffs livening up the souls of the content listeners. A change of pace came when Childsaint hit the stage. The four-piece, all-girl band performed their perfectly-composed vocal harmonies and danceable beats to the relaxed crowd who were bopping and jumping lightly to their dreamy tunes. Then, when all was thought to be quiet and relaxed, Puck came out from the woodwork, the now three-piece appearing to have a much fuller sound since this reviewer's last run-in with the doom-rockers. Their punchy performance hit all the right spots in the hearts of the onlookers.

What seemed to be a bad sign for Mezzanine was the fact that the entire crowd disappeared out the front door at the end of Puck. The four-piece began their first song regardless of the small crowd. Cory John Rist's guitar is just beautiful, its awkward blue and quirky shape captivating in moments. As the first song came to an end, before too long a crowd had seemed to appear from nowhere. Rist's vocal was angelic; even yelling during choruses, his lyrics retaining their clarity throughout.

Photographer Elliot Cahill was one step away from scaling the walls trying to get good shots of the band as they played their hit, Stranger's Paradise. The catchy lyrics and well-structured sections of their songs make these guys a must see, exploiting every part of their musicality along the way. The four lads smashed out their hit, Mary as their last song for the night, with all the wailing of the effects from Rist and James on the guitars and groovy bass lines by David Jago. Robinson's rhythms were tight and really drove the songs and also left the audience flowing into a trance of crazy moves. All up the night really shone in the end and it was good to see everyone just enjoying a few drinks and listening to real talented bands at The Bird.