I arrive at the Jacaranda in a bad mood. It’s been the day from hell at work, the weather is terrible and the last thing I feel like doing on a grim dreary Monday is heading to an unknown venue to watch an unknown band from California. However, there’s a real buzz going around about The Bites at the moment. Rumour has it that they are on the verge of being the next big thing in rock, but rumour and truth are not always perfectly synchronised. So when, a couple of days after they went down really well at Winter Rocks Festival, they came to Liverpool to play a tiny cellar venue in front of maybe 20 people I dragged myself down to watch, even if moaned about it all the way there.   

To warm us up we got a short but sweet set from local lads Deshine. The first thing I noticed about them was a couple of Epiphone 335s, not the most rock n roll of guitars but much beloved by a certain band from Manchester who shall remain nameless whilst we are in Liverpool! I had an idea what the sound might be like, and I wasn’t wrong. The britpop influence of Stone Roses, The Verve and the manc bastards was obvious, but more subtle were hints of 60s Beatles, and to my ears at least a heavy dose of noughties Swedish style pioneers The Hives. It wasn’t to everyone’s taste, the band are young and somewhat unpolished and their style was slightly at odds with the brash headliners but I enjoyed the set and I think they gave a solid if slightly nervous performance. 

So what is there to love about The Bites then? Well there’s the sound, gloriously big riffs with snippets of classic 70s and 80s hard rock classics. There’s the look, the tightest of tight trousers, hairstyles covering all bases between hippy and hipster, slogan tshirts and glam rock belts. How about the attitude? They try to be sneery and sleazy but actually come across as the kind of blokes you’d like to have a beer with – they probably even help little old ladies to cross the road. I shall be standing on a lot of kerbs for the next couple of weeks while they’re in the UK just in case there happens to be a stray Bite passing to assist me! All of these things endeared them to me, as did the fact that they produced a storming set despite being a man down (guitarist Jono was sadly too ill to make the gig, leaving singer Jordan somewhat out of his comfort zone with the buffer of a guitar between him and his audience).  

But mostly it was the songs. Most of these were drawn from their recently released album “Squeeze” and if you closed your eyes you were transported from this rather dingy scouse basement to the glittering lights of the Sunset Strip. Big chords, big choruses, big ambitions. ‘Knocking On The Door’ reminded me of Canadian AOR monsters Loverboy. Album title “Squeeze” could have been on an early Cheap Trick album. They did a medley that started with Black Sabbath'’s ‘War Pigs’, segued into Led Zep’s ‘Rock & Roll’ and then curveballed into The Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. Metal in guyliner, classic rock with beard oil, punk wearing converse. Sounds mental but it worked. ‘Good Love’ was stompy 70s glam rock, ‘Heather Leather’ gave us sleazy 80s hair metal. It’s sassy and tongue in cheek, The Bites love what they do and you can’t help loving watching them do it. There is raw energy and great crowd interaction, and I haven’t just warmed to them I have turned into a notebook-clutching fireball.  

Ther’s a drum solo, and the bass player falls to his knees. The guitarist is in the crowd but this could have been an accident as the stage was only 3 inches high, he might have just stepped off by accident to be fair. The singer, even hampered by a guitar he wasn’t used to, was a sparkling ball of fizz and fervour. Altogether it was a rollicking riot of sound and fun, and the perfect antidote to a glum Monday. Next big thing? Yeah, they actually just might be.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
The Bites, Deshine