Boom. This is a trendy place. Trendy in an Indie kind of way. So perhaps "trendy" isn't the right word. There are men here with their well groomed, messy hair that took them hours to prepare. For once, the women have made less of an effort.

I hang around during the sound check of the first band, Phat Pigeon, nursing a drink. When the rehearsal has finished, I get talking to Sam Duncombe, the band's drummer.

The Rethink

He tells me that Phat Pigeon have been going for four years now. They are, apparently, in the middle of a rethink. Every six months or so, he says, they try to change their output a bit. But come December, they're going to take a couple of months off and re-evaluate their entire output.

"We've got these songs that we've been playing for years and we're just getting tired of them. It's time to try something else," he explains.

Judging by their set, you can see what he means. Although they've got a good (albeit distorted) sound going, Phat Pigeon hardly pose a threat to the popularity of the Eagles, the Byrds or the Black Crowes.

American Roots

The band seem to be heavily influenced by American Indie. There's the obligatory gruff voice of the vocal, the distortion heavy guitars and meandering, but repetitive bass line keeping everything afloat. It sounds all right. But that's because it sounds like a lot of other "all right" music.

Phat Pigeon is a typical four part ensemble made up of old school friends, friends of friends and friends of girlfriends. Vocalist Steve Davis (no, not that Steve Davis) writes the lyrics and, with the help of Adam Johns (Guitarist), writes the music too. Sam "just turns up to bang drums". Well, that's what he says, anyway.

The Morning After the Holiday Before

The songs seem to be about fairly light subjects: "Running from the Sun" is about trying to avoid sunburn on holiday, while "Melodramatic Fools" is about failing to avoid a hangover. The music doesn't quite match the lyrics' lighter moods. In places, they sound like a rather intense Four Star Mary.

Their favourite song is "Red". It is this that they intend to keep in the P.P. cannon after the premature spring clean in the New Year.

Look out for them when they return. With a new batch of new songs, Phat Pigeon may well turn up trumps.

A Bad Day in the Monkey House

The Vintage Chimps have had a bad day. This gig was nearly cancelled and a repeat non-performance of their last attempt to entertain the good people of Cheltenham seemed likely. Fortunately whatever the problem was, it went away, and the gig is now back on. Unfortunately, the Vintage Chimps and the other bands playing tonight were left with a very sub-standard PA: "The sound system's from the Titanic," Dave the keyboardist jokes during the band's set. But not many people are finding it funny.

The Bright Red Drummer

Nevertheless, the VCs do their best with what little they've got. As luck would have it, one of these "little" things is a session drummer, Alistair, who has the reddest hair that anyone has ever seen.

He's good. He's very good. And it seems that he's given the band as a whole a new spark. It makes a change from the drum machines that they are always having to reprogramme and rigidly play along with. Now they have a chance to vary what they are playing. "Dave is even singing," Chris the vocalist explains. "He's never done that before!"

Guitars

The VCs are more guitar driven when playing live. The recordings they have made thus far are often synth led, with only the tiniest smattering of guitar work riding over the top. Here, in concert, the six stringed staple is much more in evidence. In fact, it is only on a double take that I realise that the band's got two bass guitars. Which is slightly odd.

The band likes their atmospheric noise, and they like their smoke even more. Every now and then, they pause as the dry ice pours out. "We need a lot of smoke for this one," Chris explains before they launch into "Enigma Star". It's an odd request. Surely a decent sound system would be higher on their list of priorities. But you can't have everything.

Lullabies for the Indie Generation

The novelty songs of "Cats in the Garden" and "Deck the Ho" are clearly off the agenda tonight, despite calls for them from the audience. Instead, the band prefer to showcase their newer material.

The Chimps seem to be specialising in their own special brand of "Music to Fall Asleep to" at the moment. Don't get me wrong. This is a good thing. Sometimes, there is nothing you need more than a decent song to drop off to. And if it wasn't for the volume of these pop lullabies, maybe some of us would. There are certainly moments when Chris Collins looks like he might.

Date for the Diary

It's been an interesting night. But at least it happened. For a while it looked like it might not. Next up for these two bands is a support slot with the Bluetones in Gloucester on 21 November. Hopefully the sound will be working. I'll see you there.

02/10/03 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire