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I first saw the Levellers live at T in the park festival a mere month after their now legendary performance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 1994. I’d been a fan of their music for a fair while beforehand and was never likely to be disappointed but the set, and in particular English Civil War, is still one of my favourite memories from innumerable festival weekends over the years.

I’ve been at a fair number of Levellers gigs since and although the drink is dearer these days, my knees are never as keen on dancing all night as they were and, tonight, the ABC glitter ball is a poor substitute for the summer festival sun, there is still no fear of disappointment. With many bands who have as large a back catalogue of music as the Levellers there is often the concern whether they’ll play only to promote the new album, will they still keep the old singles & chart hits in the set list and will they play my own personal favourites.

The Levellers are masters at crowd pleasing though — one of the reasons they have the reputation as a great festival band — and they know exactly the balance to strike. The ABC gig leans heavily towards the current new album Letters from the Underground which many have seen as more in touch with the band’s earlier albums such as Levelling The Land & showing a drift away from more recent output — this is given proof as A Life Less Ordinary & Cholera Well lead into the manic paced Riverflow before the encore break. Overall this bias means the band have played an almost non-stop fast & energetic set for this tour, throw in Carry Me, Far From Home and a little song called One Way and they’ve also played my personal favourites. You just can’t get a better gig than that.

A regret? My intention had been to go watch the Levellers gig in Inverness the night before without camera with just the intention, and freedom, to enjoy every moment dancing and bouncing off the barrier in the front row. Maybe next tour I’ll organise both a photo gig and a dancing/drinking gig. I’m looking forward to it already …

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Ascension have taken the long way round from their beginnings in 2004 with only one original member remaining but they’ve never veered from the path of pure power metal. Having gigged extensively in previous years, 2008 has been a time of change with a whole new rhythm section being drafted in, David Wood playing bass since Spring and in September, Dick Gilchrist took over as the band’s pure metal drummer.

Power metal can be hit & miss if like myself you’re not a big listener of the genre, the good can be great but the bad can leave you wondering why anyone has the audacity to label it as music. Ascension instantly fall into the category of good power metal band as soon as Fraser Edwards and founding member Stuart Docherty plug in and stretch their fingers with almost faultless technical skill & speed. It’s the shredding guitars that drive Ascension into my head, each constantly playing off against the other. Any reckless tendencies are ably kept in check by the duality of the thrashing blur on drums and the calm-in-a-storm posturing of the solid bass. Vocalist Richard Carnie leads the band interaction with the crowd well - better than I had expected in fact - the straining to reach notes I had imagined on some of Ascension’s recorded material never apparent in the live show.

I’m not ready to change my favourite music genres on MySpace just yet but Ascension have rekindled my interest in metal bands, and I’d call that a successful metal gig.

With the 6 track Moongate EP currently in the works and a full UK tour with Broken Melody planned for April 2009 Ascension took a close fought second place at the Aberdeen regional final of The Red Battle.

There’s not many bands that I’d unabashedly yell YEE-HAW at during a gig and The Bosshoss had me doing so several times over the space of their incredible hour and a half show. I’m not alone, the crowd here tonight love it and the Barfly has more enthusiasm & fun in the air than from a month’s worth of better known or more indie-cool scene bands.

All seven members of the band are obviously loving it as well, having a high old time of it as they play the part of good ole boy Country & Western stars performing rocking cover versions of everything from Britney, Outkast, Dionne Warwick and Gun Cameo. As the night rolls on the band each get their own solo jams on everything from electric guitar, double bass, banjo, shakers, bar stool drumming and spoon & washboard. Each one of them is clearly enjoying their set and the atmosphere this manages to create ensures there’s a near constant stream of drinks proffered by the grateful & adoring crowd. Don’t worry though, they pass round their own bottle of booze for us all to share in return.

As we leave, I think there’s a little bit of a cowboy drawl in all our voices and I’m maybe walking just a wee bit more like John Wayne than normal. On arriving home though the recorded material feels so quiet & restrained compared to the show that blew us all away so I’ll finish by quoting my own initial posted reaction: “Excellent, excellent, excellent gig.”