Quality not quantity
Winnebago Deal are a punk/grunge/metal duo from Oxford & tonight we find them supporting Dwarves at Manchester Academy.
Most of the crowd are in place when Winnebago Deal take to the stage & although they don't go down a storm I think they are politely appreciated by the majority of the audience. The music is hard, fast & heavy & what strikes you after the first few songs is that you can't really tell that there are no more than two of them up there. It's a big full sound that in the main retains a frenetic pace, the vocals have an American twinge about them circa 90's grunge, the guitar is fast & distorted & the drums are wild but always in time.
Being a duo gives Winnebago Deal the advantage of sounding tight musically without any apparent effort. The songs are quite long & they really are rather good, the riffs are simple & heavy but very effective have enough dynamics to prevent boredom. When they do move into quieter moments it just builds the anticipation for the wall of noise that you know is going to follow.
The third & last songs tonight feature the added bonus of keyboard accompaniment, unfortunately Winnebago Deal have the worst part time keyboard player on the planet & he can do no more than play one note (badly) in the third song & frantically waggle the pitch shifting stick in the last! It does break things up a little though.
It could be argued that in places Winnebago Deal sound a little dated but they do enough to move beyond that criticism & could be set for bigger & better things