Heaven Underground rocks the blues

Heaven Underground was already rock n' rollin' by the time we arrived, playing to about 50 people. Their sound is definitely a fusion of bluesy hard rock with lyrics that are deep and soulful and after a listen or two you'll hear The Doors influence coming through. Heaven Underground are Dylan Chegwidden on guitar and harmonica as well as lead vocalist, Garon Ruger on lead guitar, Garry van Vuuren on bass and vocals and Giorgio Laporta on drums. As a band they have great stage presence and it's more than notable that they love what they do, irrespective of crowd attendance. Garon is absolutely awesome on guitar; he has the nature of a true rockstar. Heaven Underground has personality - which is far more than I can say for some others I've seen perform live. Their laid-back character could be attributed to the fact that they're from False Bay. "False Bay?! Where's that?!" you ask. Well, it's this chilled out southern suburb, close to Fish Hoek. Believe it or not, not all bands are born and bred in Belville. They do have some work cut out for them if they plan on reaching guitar hero/sing star-level, but their time will come; and their fans - the head-swingers - will make sure of that.

For more on Heaven Underground, go to www.heavenunderground.co.za or check out their MySpace profile.

A trip to the bar and two foosball games later, Southpaw showed up on stage. They certainly have the ability to bring on the funk, but quite honestly, I found their performance at Mercury last weekend to be mundane and uninspiring. I've seen them perform at the same venue before and know that they are capable of bringing the house down. Perhaps their static performance was due to attendance numbers, but those that were there came out to see Southpaw perform at their best. I, along with others was a little disappointed. They are great musicians and have some awesome tracks like "Alien Invasion" and "Sin City"; they just need to focus more on their stage presence because the nonchalant look into the distance is not going to cut it.

For more on Southpaw, and to listen to some of their tracks, visit them on MySpace.

Rock on this weekend with Tonight we die, AB Turbo and Wrestlerish on Friday, 17 July and Fox Comet and Cheech on Saturday, 18 July at Mercury.