A Night With BOTS

The local music scene is often used by artists trying to make it big, although some just shouldn’t stray from playing gigs in the smaller venues. Wiltshire pop-punk band BOTS is unfortunately one of these artists.

Taking the stage at The Victoria, the three-piece dove straight into playing their music. BOTS adopted every pop-punk stereotype; gritty, strained vocals and showy, overbearing drums boomed through the dingy venue. Whilst many bands take the stereotype and make it into something original, BOTS didn’t.

All you could hear throughout the set was the aforementioned drums and vocals. The levels were off and the drumming droned out the sound of the bass and the guitar. The string accompaniment was the section with the most talent, so it was disappointing that you had to strain to hear.

The set had its ups and downs, mostly going very smoothly, but the audience appearing somewhat bored. Any mistakes were played off, and would only be obvious if you paid close attention.

The main downfall of the gig was BOTS’ cover of ‘Bad Guy’. Vocalist and guitarist Hubert Gomulski forgot the words to the second verse, and the only member who kept it together was bassist Matty Chequer.

Through the set, the drummer (introduced as Jacob Crespin minutes before they left the stage) interacted with the audience, which is of course an important thing to do. Still, I wouldn’t recommend calling the audience “pu****s” and insulting the people who came to see you. Other jokes remained pretentious and unnecessary, and Crespin’s time may have been better spent focusing on actually keeping his drumming on time.

Each member of BOTS is very talented in their own right, which makes it a shame that they don’t come together well. They have the chemistry between members and the audience, but for whatever reason their musical ability just doesn’t gel.

I strongly believe BOTS would find more success if Gomulski and Chequer aimed to find a new drummer, or at least put their current one in his place.