I first knew about The Noises from my friends who attended Crash of The Titans. I got positive reviews from them. Although it was a little bit odd for a punk band to enter a metal contest, I'm not going to comment on that since I didn't participate in that event or attended any of its gigs. Being an occasional listener to punk rock music rather than a big fan, the first thing I did when I decided that I was going to attend was going to the band's fan page on Facebook where I listened to their new single "Die Another Day"… and honestly, I liked it, but more on the music later in this review. But one thing worth noting is the attitude of the band. In the event page when talking about tickets they made it clear that, and I'm quoting here, "Gloria Jeans made a new rule and now an order is a must to enter the cafe. EVERYONE is more than welcome to sneak in past the cashiers because we are not making any money out of this anyways!" these lines made want to go. I ordered my coffee anyway (mochachino), but this showed me that they got something up their sleeves, ATTITUDE, and even if they didn't sound good (they did), they would look good on the stage (there was no stage), and sometimes in rock business, attitude on stage is more important than sounding good. The proof from punk scene is the late Sid Vicious. And to be more honest, I've been to gigs before; some bands tend to be more uptight than their organizers or venue owners to the point of taking all the fun out of it.  

When I heard that the gig is going to be held in place like Gloria Jean's I was a little bit surprised. I know that although Amman got a lot of cafés, pubs, theatres, etc… it's still hard to find a decent place to put out a gig, especially a metal or rock gig. But my problem with GJ is that… it's too decent to host this kind of gigs with a lot of careless kids in one place. I never put a foot in this place before. But from what I heard about it, students gather and make study circles there. And when you get to the second floor you can see a big library table just to get the feeling that this place was meant to be quiet and peaceful. And that, at least down to my understanding, is exactly the opposite of what punk rock and this band stand for, hence the name "The Noises". Another thing that bothered me, there was no FREAKING stage. The band was on the same level as the audience. A lot of people didn't get the chance to see the band play because of the crowd in front of the stag… mmmm… I mean the little space that was offered to the band to occupy, which leads us to another thing: they maybe chose the worst spot in the venue to occupy. The space was so narrow that a lot of people there didn't bother to cram themselves among the crowd and join the festival. Also it was close to the edge of the second floor. The danger of some poor fool falling of the edge was constantly present.

Now we go to the musical aspect of the evening. I'm not talking about the sound mixing since it's been established that poor sound quality is a sacred tradition here in Jordan so our ears got used to it and I'm ok with it! The band opened with "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by Iggy Pop and the Stooges. It was great of them to play this song since lets face it; the majority of the crowd was consisted of metal fans and they were familiar with the Slayer version of the song "I Wanna Be Your God". The performance was great. The players mastered their instruments almost flawlessly and the vocal handled the crowd rather nicely. Considering that this was their first gig alone without sharing the stage with another band, they sat a new milestone for other local bands who aspire to do the same thing. They continued on playing punk classics and introducing some of their original tracks but the audience didn't really move until they played "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones… maybe because of the catchy chorus "Ei, Oh, Lets go!" but choosing a lively track to play was smart move instead of picking a more hardcore punk classic. Although I didn't pay my full attention ate the time the originals were played. But I could tell that they wee good songs. Maybe a little more work on the solos. The Noises closed the night with "Did you No Wrong by the Sex Pistols" then playing "Blitzkrieg Bop" again on demand. But it's worth mentioning that they finished earlier than expected. Some people only arrived to find them playing the last track and some others even reached after the band had gathered their stuff.

All in all, the evening was good. The Noises graced us with some quality punk rock classics. And although the venue was poorly chosen, I can say that they made up for it with their performance. Yet I would have gone home happier that night if it lasted a little bit longer! In a a place more suitable for a punk concert than golria jeans

You can Find JorZine Media Coverage for the event here