The Foundry are excellent. There is no two ways about that. They can play, then can sing, they can pull solos out of their instruments (all of them) and they can entertain. They were technically brilliant. As one punter near me said "It's like listening to the radio". However, and this is more a personal opinion than a criticism, that is the problem. While I like to hear a band that are good and can play, I am much more interested in hearing/watching a band who are there to entertain me, to interact, to involve and to do something different than the CD version, if you catch my meaning.The Foundry were the 2nd best of the Bands who got involved in this 'ExpoSure' promoted Competition and they were only marginally second best. Having spoken to the organiser, and having been told that the judgng was going to be based on Stage Presence, Crowd Interaction, Originality, and Technical Ability, I could see how these guys would have won it had it not been for the fact that they were up against 'Dextra', to whom technical ability takes a distant second place to involving the crowd in terms of priority. In other word, they're more interested in having fun (themselves and the audience) than in making sure they hit each note correctly. The Foundry more than hit each note correctly - they chose each song correctly. The seams between the originals and cover verisons would have been virtually unrecognisable if not for the fact that they announced the originals. running through influences like Thin Lizzy, The Rolling Stones, Cream (Eric Clapton), Hendrix, Status Quo, it was obvious to us 30-somethings that these guys were our age, or at least their musical taste is! Songs like "Back Home Again" and Cream's "Crossroads" were performed superbly, each note in the right place, even on the difficult but refreshing guitar solos. Warming up into "Wait For Tomorrow", the vocals took more of a central position, with excellent and very complimentary backing vocals. Again, in the more relaxed "You're Lying" the vocals were given prominence and we were shown that this guy can really sing. At times the music stopped altogether (except the drums) to allow us focus on the singing. Very different than many of the less-confident rivals out there. Later in the set, a song appeared which seemed to be called "New York Is Crying". It sounded both original and familiar at the same time. Hard to make out if it was an old song covered or if it was a new composition written about the 9.11 terrorist attacks. Whatever it was, it was good and the riffs and hooks were nicely 1970's |