Sunday at the Dublin Castle. I arrive around 8, but the doors are not open yet. As there are supposed to be 5 bands on tonight this is a bit unsettling. It turns out 2 of the 5 bands have pulled out. This might have something to do with the drums; Vanilla Ride are drumless tonight as there is some problem with sharing drums (knowledgable people talk about 'backline' but I'm not sure what that means).The first band do have drums (they may belong to the second band, or the second band may use the drums of the first band, I think there is only one set of drums anyway). They are an all girl punky/grungey outfit from Hitchin called Spiked. They have dressed up and brought a fair crowd. They are all 16 according to their myspace and are lively.  Their live show is pretty good.

Spiked

After a brief break for a pint of London Pride, during which I miss the middle band (they sound rather heavy metal from the safety of the front bar) Vanilla Ride start their set with a slight stutter. The absence of drums must surely be responsible for the guitar and bass starting out of time. I've seen Vanilla Ride in several guises: Veronica on her own at the Bull & Gate, Veronica and Brett (Drums) at several venues, and now Veronica and Sachiko (Bass). I've also seen two versions of the 3 piece (Sachiko replaced Corinne in November 2007). Whilst I think they are best as a three piece the simplicity of Veronica's songs means they can be enjoyable in all these permutations. They seem to get a particularly good response from tonight's audience.

Vanilla Ride