Discount Columbo & Bandicoot

I was in indie heaven on Friday night as Discount Colombo and Bandicoot transported me back to my student says of twenty years ago which was ironic as I don’t think the bands were much over twenty years old themselves. The two bands reminded me of two of my favourite bands of the Brit-Pop era, Ride and The Wonderstuff.

First up were the floppy fringes of shoe-gazers, Bandicoot. Ride were one of the best bands that I saw at my first music festival, Glastonbury in 1994 but they suddenly disappeared soon after. I now know why, they discovered time travel and used it to travel to the Masons for this gig. The band had a great reception from the crowd and they managed to get a good few of them up and dancing at the front of the stage. One of their best-received songs was the indie disco staple, ’I wanna be adored’ by The Stone Roses which was played to perfection. I just wished that I still had my overly large jumper and ripped jeans, although I think it is too late for my fringe to make a comeback.

Headlining the night were four music students from Bristol, Discount Colombo. The band were keen to play Llanelli as bass player, Connor, from Aberdare had heard good things about our music scene. The boys played an upbeat folk-orientated style of indie. The only thing missing from the band that could have convinced me that they were the sons of The Wonderstuff, was their lack of a fiddle player, which was always popular back in the mid-nineties and I think would be a great addition to this band. The boys were all very talented and they played their set with great enthusiasm and style. The songs varied from gentler folk songs such as 'Slow Lane' to more upbeat sing-along songs such as ‘Oh me, Oh my, Oh no!’ they even strayed into pop-punk territory with ‘My Girl Bam!’ The band had a very professional outlook and I purchased their EP, which again, is very professionally made, but the boys have a great sense of fun which is sometimes lacking with a band when they concentrate too much on being professional. The crowd really enjoyed their set and managed to get the boys to stay on for a well received encore.