As I stood in the Globe, just prior to Estrons hitting the stage, I took two minutes to reflect on the live music scene. Myself prior to the last week was beginning to lose faith in the live music scene, not from the perspective of the bands who have never failed to give a 100% balls out performance, but the lack of a crowd to support them in doing so.

I’d began to despair for the bands and wonder where the next big band was coming from, to me bands have traditionally built a following live.  I’d caught Janes Addiction in the back room of a hotel in Birmingham and watched them explode, I’d caught Nirvana prior to the release of Nevermind to name two and watched them hit the stratosphere.

Now over a week-long period I’d caught Zeal and Ardour destroy a sold-out Fleece, I’d seen The Interrupters get a sold out SWX dancing and now I’ve seen Estron’s deliver a sound that was too big to fit within a sold-out Globe!!!

You couldn’t have asked for a wider variety of music starting to explode out of the Underground, what did they all have in common? That little bit of something you can’t define, that star quality you can’t fake and a blinding LP to promote, Estron’s probably sat at the top of the tree with their LP “You say I’m too much, I say you’re not enough”.

So who are Estrons? They’re made up of Taliesyn “Tali” Källström on vocals

Rhodri Daniel on guitar, Steffan Pringle on bass and out of Exit_International

Adam Thomas on drums together they have crafted something that was like a breath of fresh air, defiantly different, grounded in the underground but destined to become so much bigger. I could go on and say I first caught them two years earlier supporting Bob Mould, but the band that turned up tonight were so far removed from that performance, so much more confidence, so much more power, so much more craft present you could see the miles they’ve put on really shaping them.

Opening up with possibly the most powerful tracks on the new LP “Lilac” and “Body” I could feel my smile spreading across my face (when I’d picked my jaw up off the floor), Tali the perfect focal point, reminding me at times of a young “Siouxsie” at others the singer Courtney Love had always wanted to be, I looked across to Johnny H and saw that same expression “This is something special”.

“Killing your love” and  “Strangers” hard to believe moved it up a gear before the band absolutely raised the roof with blinding versions of “Make a man out of you” and “Aliens” talk about power and intensity!! Before the track of the night for yours truly “I’m not your girl” we had mosh pits, we had crowd surfing including Tali, but what we had in reality was a band that have already grown too big for this size venue, in no way did it hold down the Maelstrom of noise they’d created.

They’ve raised the bar so high for the next level of Welsh bands it will be great to watch a whole new raft of Welsh bands emulate, experiment and plough their way through a staid mainstream musical environment, very much as the Manic’s did back in the day and to see Welsh music back in the wider public eye.

You’ll be lucky to catch these guys live in intimate venues in the future, the Festival circuit will undoubtedly call, as will the large support slots and the bigger headline gigs. The Future is Welsh and led by a bunch of Misfits (Estrons)

Author: Nev Brooks

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