Blast

Great Eskimo Hoax's appearance was indeed, a trick on the minds of us weather-beaten Worcester scampeems.

It was a sad Saturday night discovery to find that the quickly successful Bewdley band, who've toured with the likes of Oxford outfits Foals and This Town needs Guns, were not playing at The Task In Hand's weekly event, this week a highly-anticipated 8 till late one -off.

A night created not so many moons ago, and alternating between the Marr's Bar and The Firefly, two of Worcester's leading musical treasure-bearers, TTINH launched an extra-long experimentation' fusing both local and national musical faculty' to kick start the summer.

Theo

Though guitarists' hand injuries aside (in my dismay at their no-show I MySpaced the band, how 2001 of me) the 'all-nighter' till 4am sought to be anything but a disappointment, with a super-varied line up of live acts and DJs into the early hours.

On arrival I caught the end of Theo, a slightly peculiar electronica music machine in the form of Sam Knight, a local musician known for the obscure yet intricately-formulated sound that is Theo.

Seen across the Worcestershire scene for a few years now, Theo's experimental progressive sound is still as reliably strange a concept, and though you'd think it would be a lonesome listen – self described as 'a one man band ... guitars + loops + drums = sound.'

At the risk of sounding pervy, its nice to watch the rhythmic way in which Theo comes to make musical sense, alternating between strumming, looping and drumming the artist makes for an appealing visual performance as well as aural.

The organisation of songs from his EPs Order, Echo and Encouragement and CD How To Write Short Stories is streamlined, and occasionally really quite moving, and dazzling in its precision; you can definitely hear the influences of pop punk and math-rock in the music, with crowded crescendos and slow, pretty, retiring wind downs.

I think of Mogwai, Youthmovies and Explosions in the Sky, some musicians I'm assuming Knight can only be influenced by - and that's a good thing.

This city would be glad to see Theo play more often; he leans towards the bracket of really good stuff these Worcestershire parts have to offer.

Task In Hand

Deriving from the Task In Hand Record store in Worcester (situated in the Hop Market), James Willis and Rich Clarke have since 2006 ran various live gig nights in Worcester, bringing together the crème-de-la-crème of unmissable live alternative music, from near and far - but mostly near.

In the past they have booked Parts and Labour, The Cape of Good Hope, Diego Garcia, The Pirate Ship Quintet, Awesome Colour and most prolifically the now ATP-Gods, F**k Buttons.

TTINH also ventured out to release split 7'' records for both Great Eskimo Hoax and The Cape of Good Hope. Their main concern is attracting attention to local alternative music that offers and deserves more than a country pub sing along.

Zebedy Rays

Rays

Amongst others playing, I shall mention next up on the Marr's Bar's modest stage - Zebedy Rays.

Springing from the mini musical metropolis of Malvern, a place that boasts The Lamb Inn, July's WestFest and varied talents from Dave Lowe to Sam Isaac, the guys have made a name for themselves as ones to get excited about.

The music is not quite dazzling, until the intricate guitars instigate what becomes a steady torrent of invariably catchy songs like Brick Lane and Control, with great hooks peppered here and there within a frenzied live show.

Drummer Josh Powell keeps up a quick tempo in most tracks, with curious accuracy for such a young player, and bassist Danny Meigh throws out weighty bass lines giving the indie-rock a more bluesy edge.

The result is a good, concrete sonic fusion of old and contemporary styles, made absolute by one of the strongest and most decipherable voices I've heard in a while - one that resembles just slightly a certain Mr Followill from a certain Kings of Leon.

Adam Hickman plays both vocals and lead guitar with vigour, entertaining the crowd with occasional quips and teasing.

Their age and energy is similar however to their young counterparts Bombay Bicycle Club, from London, who are currently receiving critical acclaim from all at Radio One and the like.

A little peek at their fan page tells me that Zebedy Rays are not short of adoring local fans, and though their sound would need to be honed and groomed a little for a chance to grace the mainstream,thei manic style of performance is not going missed, with their playful ability to try funk, grunge and blues in a single song and firm grasp on the importance of familiarity between act and audience.

Cats In Paris (c) Shirlaine Forrest

Cats

Cats in Paris, hailing from Manchester, bring a fairly contrasting sprinkling of fairly generic indie-electro-pop to The Marr's Bar.

Though not a local act, and vastly contrasting to the previous aforementioned acts as well as those not documented, the band are a seemingly safe booking for a Task In Hand night, as established by the bouncy and satisfied, though not elated, nature of the crowd.

By now it is half past midnight and spirits are raised considerably by the slightly screechy, funny and yes feline-like singing of the male and woman vocalists, with songs such as Foxes and Terrapins.

Without being catty (oh), the female vocals in particular are slightly disconcerting, but I'm sure they have their reasons for her musical inclusion on their debut album, Courtcase 2000.

Their onstage energy is however unquestionably undying, as the set draws to a close and the audience anticipate the band's DJ set, which is a nice mix of classic rock and electronica, electro and specialist indie.

As someone who's recently abandoned the Worcester music scene due to my studies in (ironically) Manchester, this night was all a questioning and dubious listener and spectator needed to convince me of the wealth of local talent the city has to offer.

Great Eskimo Hoax pull out

It was a great shame Great Eskimo Hoax weren't present to join this display, as after talking to people there that's who many came to watch; though such a promising (though that sounds way too school report-card) and frankly, reassuringly awesome line-up more than made up for their absence.

It's no secret that great musical findings are too often discarded and geographically discminated in so far as making it big and establishing a fully-fledged career in the music business.

Tonight's focus on the youthful talent within Worcestershire coalesced with Cat's in Paris polished set, made for an impressive extravaganza Task completed.

Keep posted on TTINH MySpace, or sign up to the blog, so not to miss out on any of the shows currently being held on various nights of the week.

All shows start at 8pm and finish late unless otherwise stated.