Revelated

I've just got back from Student Battle of the Bands at Moles tonight, and in particular I went to see my friends play, guys who go by the name of 'Marstin and the Revelators'. Marstin is from the Faroe Islands, and came to my Church in October, and after going out for lunch that day we kept in touch and, finding out they were going to play at Revs in an acoustic Battle of the Bands, I went along. You're kind of in that place where you think "What if they actually really aren't that good?". It's bad enough when you're friends, but when you've just met them it makes it ten times worse - "what will I say to them when they come off and they've completely bombed?"

That evening however, I was greatly relieved when they started performing, and, well, performing is the key word. Marstin is pretty quiet when one to one but on stage he lights up, almost taking on a different persona, making gestures, taking on very dangerous pitches, and generally just having a whale (which coincidentally is a Faroese delicacy...) of a time. This is very high-risk. Do this half-heartedly and it falls flat on its face, but put all your energy into it and you end up with a sound that makes you distinct, a cut above in a world of 'good but not that different' indie/rock/acoustic bands. The crowd went with it, singing along and even participating (oh yes, there is much crowd participation in a Revelators set), and in the end the judges did too. Indeed, they went with it too a few weeks later, when they won the final.

Tonight they won their heat hands down too, and with the final in two weeks time (25th March) I encourage you to get down there and check them out. In the meantime, have a look around their MySpace and Facebook pages, and soon you'll be whistling the amazingly addictive riff from 'The Salmon Song', singing such classic lines as "I killed the lion and the bear", and screeching the soon-to-be-famous exclamation "pumpkin pie!".