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Monday night at Manchester's Jabez Clegg venue promises an evening of rock and The Amber Club certainly fall into that category. Previously known as 'The Flow' they deliver a succession of big sounding riffs but tonight's performance isn't without it's problems.
The sound is way too loud, not something you'd normally complain about for a rock band but in this venue it means most of the dynamics are completely lost in a wall of noise. Singer Pete (or Captain Rock if myspace is to be believed!) has a good vocal range but again the poor sound makes most of the words illegible. Fortunately he makes up for this with an entertaining performance, spending most of the time off the stage and either kneeling or lying on the floor in the space that the decent sized crowd has kindly left for him. The rest of the band are fairly static by comparison but when the sound does allow us to hear what's going on it sounds pretty good, occasionally slow but never grinding. There's plenty of accomplished, albeit moody, guitar work from guitarist Penny Stoba (that would be myspace again) but overall the dodgy sound makes them come across as a bit of a mess.
There are plenty of hints at good song structures and there's decent variety in their set but it's hard to tell tonight just how good they could be. A different venue with decent sound could well see The Amber Club really impress.