Brew Men
The Retox are a five piece rock band and hailing from Guildford this is a home town gig for these guys. Considering the hour of the day (mid afternoon) they get a decent sized crowd and they don’t waste the opportunity.
The sound is not bad but it’s too quiet for this kind of hard edged rock and alas it does detract from the overall impression, which is a shame as there are some good riffs and solid guitar solo’s in evidence. The singer has a good voice for this kind of classic rock and he does plenty of PR with the crowd (although this being Guilfest he probably overdoes the swearing). Songs like ‘Wasted’ and ‘The Crunch’ are impressive but the odd slower track like ‘Taste the Witches’ falls a little flat. They get back on track with ‘Brew Man’, the band using the stage well and they get the youthful front rows of the crowd jumping.
The Retox don’t do anything particularly inventive but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there’s a place for hard edged classic rock and they do it well, it’s a good solid performance with plenty of good PR. They finish with ‘Empty to Me’ and they’ve done everything they can today despite being hampered by the volume level. Definite promise, just needs cranking up and a little tightening around the edges.