THE BASTARD SONS, THROW THE GOAT, Serpico @Eddies, Birmingham 5/7/13

This is one of those uncomfortable evenings where the amount of people in the bands onstage outnumbers the people in the crowd, which lets be honest, always puts a dampener on the show.

No matter a recently reactivated Serpico kick off in cheery fashion. They carry with them obvious mid 1990s influence, and are soon playing Therapy?’s “Screamager” as if to prove it. First time around, the band got themselves a slot at Download and got Radio play on Kerrang, this time, even with the sparse crowd, they play with a smile on their faces. “Feeling Minnesota” is catchy, and new song “The Antidote” is enjoyable. Whether they can get back to the heights of a year or two ago, only time will tell, but this represents a promising start.

California’s Throw The Goat are the reason that RTM has turned up tonight. The Idyllwild band stuck out an album called “Black Mountain” a few months back, which veers between all sorts of styles from stoner, to punk, to metal, and always remains entertaining.

Originally slated as headliners, the tour is now a co-headliner and they are on in the middle of this three band bill. Essentially they do what they do on record, and you can imagine that they would be damn fine thing to watch on a sweat-drenched evening in a small venue that was packed.

To their credit they put on a decent show, even if they are almost literally are entertaining themselves. “Burn The Bridges Down” chugs along, “Buffalo” veers into the type of area occupied by The Bronx and they chuck in a cover of “Whole Lotta Rosie” before concluding with the plain daft stomp “Having A Beer.”

York mob The Bastard Sons have blagged themselves a slot at Bloodstock this year, so their star is very much in the ascendancy. It is easy to see why, as they have a similar type of metal growl to the Black Spiders – particularly on the track “O Brothel Where Art Thou.”

They are, however, on first viewing, a slightly strange combination. Their singer JJ plays the gig from the floor, with the rest of the group behind him on stage, which is a bit odd, while elsewhere they are slightly hampered by being, and I am not quite sure how to put this, JJ being a touch out of shape. He explains he’s hungover, which is fine, this is after all rock n roll, but he is severely out of breath by the second track.

This is a shame as the band clearly have the songs to do well for themselves and RTM looks forward to seeing them at Bloodstock.

Not a bad night by any means, but you suspect that all the bands involved would have had shows they enjoyed a lot more than this.