Seing as I get paid for being there I get the chance to see virtually every gig and on quieter nights I can even pay enough attention to hear the music!! I'll try and review every gig I get the chance to actually appreciate.

This was the third in a weekly series run jointly by the Bierkeller and Venue magazine in Bristol. Last night was an indie night and four bands without contracts but with potential performed.

First up was Anon - Sorry lads but I have to say it's a poor choice of name. The music isn't intrinsically bad but it is just that, anonymous. The lyrics and melodys fit together nicely and their lead singer has a pretty good voice but it sounded a lot better in sound check. In the current musical climate I can't see them getting signed in their current form but then what do I know. It was a good effort anyway. And there's loads of bands called 'anon' so a name change would make it easier to find out more about you.

Third on the line up was 'Black lines' - Another band I know nothing about, except that they're mates of one of our bouncers and hail from Surrey. I wa pretty impressed with the guitar work from this lot, something akin to the sweeping stadium rock style of David Gilmour or The Edge. This is stereophonics style indie with a heart in RnB, not devoutly indie but not entirley AOR either and it works reasonably well. Didn't hear the lyrics too well so I can't observe on that, the music surrounding it was very skillful, I predict good things for this band.

Last on were 'Stone From Delphi' - A local band from Glostershire. Again, we have indie with a rockier edge to it. I thought somewhat akin to Muse. The set started quite badly with the sound levels obviously set wrong or the band in the wrong places as a lot of feedback spoiled the first three songs, as things smoothed out they got the audience going well and I was impressed again with the level of ability. Andy Nelson has a quite varied vocal style, going from smooth gravelly sounding blues to Jeff Buckley style high pitched warbling and although he doesn't always seem to hit the exact note he was aiming for everything is sung with passion and power. They also gave me a promo CD which is sounding promising so I guess I should return the favour by giving out their web address; www.stonefromdelphi.co.uk

Stars of the show in my opinion though were 'Dry Rise' - This brighton band rock! I'll be very dissapointed if they don't go anywhere this year. After the first band I was expecting more obvious sounding indie plod and sure enough that was how they started but a few bars in the guitar gets lifted from Gazz Marlow's Crotch and the aural assault begins. The whole thing fitted together neatly and while there were no fancy guitar licks like Black Lines provided, everything was spat at the audience with venom and true power which I don't expect to see very oftne in indie.To be honest, I would debate that they aren't indie but heavy rock with a slight indie element, possibly more suitable for last tuesdays metal night but who cares, I was impressed. With heavy metal on the rise, now should be a good time for someone to sign this lot, according to their website they're in a battle of the bands comp with 'Rock sound' so they might well be one to watch out for.

I do believe official photo's and review are due to appear on the bristol Bierkeller website (www.bristolbierkeller.co.uk) and that's also the best place to go if you fancy getting a demo to them, details should be on the website.