Breathe Carolina w/ Tek One, Tyler Mae and Fonik
There’s an underwhelming amount of attendees roaming around Aberdeen’s The Tunnels tonight. Coming all the way from Colorado in The States, you can’t help but feel that if the electronic rock duo had settled upon having their Scottish exclusive show in Glasgow, things would have been a hell of a lot busier.
One man who has a dedicated legion of fans in attendance tonight after reeling them in with a collection of online mixtapes is Robbie Mackie (under the moniker Fonik). It’s perhaps a little early for people to completely lose their shit on a school night, but someone forgot to pass the message on to the man on stage as he immediately rips in to his set, thrashing out a fresh dubstep sound which you very, very rarely hear live on stage in this part of the UK. The half hour onslaught of remixes and (more heavy than the venues norm) thumping bass go down a treat here, and there’s not one second that allows a pause for breath. Simply splendid stuff. If you haven’t heard of Fonik yet, I can assure you that in time this will change. (9)
Quality levels take a severe battering when West Midlands sextet Tyler Mae take to the stage. Their rap-rock, delivered to a crowd that is much smaller than what was afforded to Fonik, just doesn’t register at all with most of the audience, and it’s no surprise. The music is completely uninspiring. It’s performed with next to no aplomb, and whilst the band settle into their set a bit more as it goes on, it never really manages to gather any momentum. The metaphorical final nail in the coffin comes with the fact that, quite honestly, the songs are terrible. (3)
Tyler Mae, along with Fonik, can be commended for battling through some sound problems on stage. The same cannot be said for Tek One, who to be perfectly honest, make fools out of themselves tonight. The crowd are none the wiser to such sound problems experienced by the band on stage before MC Tonn cuts the music midsong to have a good moan about the problems he is experiencing with one of the decks. This happens another couple of times before the man storms off the stage in a mid set tantrum. The set is finished. Tek One die hards shrug it off. The rest of us can’t help but feel that such a moronic act of disrespect to those who have bought tickets to see the band is something that can’t be overlooked. Pathetic. * (0)
In what is fast turning in to one of the most ridiculous gigs Tunnels has seen in quite some time, Colorado’s Breathe Carolina take to the stage to return some professionalism and poise to tonight’s proceedings. Sound problems or not, the band tear in to their set and give their all to the rather sparse crowd who have braved the bands before them. The dual vocals between Kyle Even and David Schmitt sound close to impeccable live, and the former front man spends the whole set makiing the crowd feel at one with the band. It’s a breath of fresh air in comparison to what the evening has seen so far, and despite the songs not being all that up to scratch, it’s hard not to enjoy the live show itself. The band have a number of fan favourites to pick from their back catalogue and they seem to hit all the right buttons with a varied setlist, although the highlights come from the songs picked from latest album Hell Is What You Make It. Wrapping up the set with a decent rendition of ‘Blackout’ before a one song encore, Breathe Carolina show the act before them how to respect a paying audience. They pull the curtain over what can only be described as a mixed bag of a gig. With Fonik, a formidable live act has been unleashed; Tyler Mae are the token support band; Tek One are a complete non-entity, and Breathe Carolina wrap things up with integrity in abundance. Eventful, to say the least… (7)
* N.B. Tek One did in fact play a free set in local night club Origin. Given the fact a large portion of the crowd were under 18, this means nothing whatsoever.
