When you hear a gig is going to take place at a rock bar, you just know that you’re going to be in for an awesome night. And before you ask, no, it’s neither the Cockpit nor the O2 Academy…

On the 19th October exactly that happened. The monthly rock event ‘Rotten Core’ was held on the Friday evening at Bad Apples Bar, Leeds – and it delivered mind-blowing music from a breathtaking line-up of artists.

With a mixture of genres from acoustic right through to heavy rock, the crowd was always left both surprised as well as demanding an encore from each act.

Apart from the music, another aspect of the night everyone will always remember afterwards will be the actual venue design itself. In the basement area of this bar found on Call Lane, you first feel like you’re paying witness to something special with the way the room has been decorated especially for the night. With a purple-themed lighting you’d think you were there to watch some Jazz, but you also get a cool vibe from the other objects in the room including the skeleton crypt that’s found in the middle of the venue under the see-through flooring.

 

So who were the acts that performed on the night then?

For the night there were four different acts, opening the night was solo acoustic Singer/Songwriter called ‘Emma Dockeray’ who is based in Leeds. You know how after a show you always get people leaving a show and say whom they liked the most on the night. Well, after her outstanding performance on the night you can see why Dockeray is going to be the one to watch one day. Playing her own rendition of cover songs from the warmth sound of ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack to the upbeat ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley. Emma really knew how to interact with the audience on the night and achieved the moments she needed in her set to make her the absolute standout at the end of the night.

Following second in the line-up was the first of the bands, who were the York-based, four piece Indie band ‘Littlemores’. With guitar hooks and a playing style that reminds you of an early Kooks, they were able to capture the crowd with their playful stage presence and energetic set of original songs. ‘Femme Fagin’, ‘Charlie Blow’ and ‘Have You Seen The News’ were the songs that really got everyone in the audience from standing to dancing with no care in the world, just like you would if you were at a summer festival. Also being the winners of the Barfly/Fibbers Battle of the Bands 2010, Littlemores are definitely another act that will be on their way to having a successful career in the future. So if you ever get the chance to go see them, don’t miss your chance…

Leeds Rock band ‘Hobson’ were third to play on the night, after having to follow both Dockeray and Littlemores you would expect Hobson to maintain professionalism off the night’s previous entertainment. Missing their lead guitarist, their four-piece set-up did hit a lot of problems on stage such as chord mistakes in the middle of their songs, which caused them to have to stop a few times. With this being the case though, you still have to give them the benefit of the doubt, when they still managed to keep the crowd going with their talking between their songs throughout their set. Give them a little bit of room for improvement, and they should eventually become a tight-sounding Rock band, that can draw in the right crowd of people.

 

With a night like this, who would be crazy enough to be the headline act?

‘Luva Gunk’ a Leeds-based four-piece band that are hard to put into a certain genre of music. At one moment they might seem like the most ambient band you will ever hear, and then surprise you with a full on Heavy Rock sound with their next song. Bands they are influenced by include ‘Alice In Chains’ and ‘Nirvana’. And I think you can see why by just having a listen to the grunge sound they have managed to create with a mixture of their unusual chord progressions and raspy vocals that have made grunge so popular in the first place around the world, all because of these two influential bands.

Formed in late 2007 by vocalist/guitarist Andy McKinnon and guitarist Liam Gallagher, later completed by Nikhil Johnson (drums) and Stefan Gandhi (bass). They have a point to prove by playing music that not only excites and captures people, but also provides a live outlet for true musicianship.

Their setlist was the only problem to an otherwise excellent rock performance, making the error of starting with a song that was perhaps too ambient and depressing for the audience that were still around by the end of the night to see them. Saying this though, I honestly believe this band could have a future if they just work on the little things. You can’t deny that if you were around to watch them that their particular style of songwriting is quite unique with songs like ‘Monkey Run’ and ‘A Denial’, which were very heavy punk. Also, some of their other originals like ‘Into The Sun’ and ‘Regret’, which even though they didn’t lift the crowd in the way Rock music is meant to, they created a cool vibe with their music that really told a story with meaningful lyrics.

 

Where on the Internet can I listen to these artists?

If you want to find out anymore about these acts and hear some of their tracks for yourself, then here are some links below for you to listen to for yourselves:

Luva Gunk: http://www.reverbnation.com/luvagunk

Littlemores: http://soundcloud.com/littlemores

Emma Dockeray: http://www.youtube.com/user/emmadockeray

And if you want to tell us what you think of any the acts, please do feel free to leave us a comment…