Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Raw, un-mitigating power, the abilty to drive a musical note so far down the ear canal that it pops out the other side as if hurtling round the Higgs Boson Hadron Collider, power but with controlled aggression, not to see where the origins of the Universe may lay, not to marvel at the prospect of where the place of birth is in the cosmic soup but to introduce a the great sound at the disposal of The 69 Watts.

Placed between the two contagious sounds of Helena Johnson and The Hazel Empire might have dampened the resolve of lesser men, for who can truly compete when two outrageously talented female fronted bands are giving so much energy to a room full of people, 69 Watts turned up the pressure and delivered with flying colours.

The addition of The 69 Watts to the proceedings at the L.I.P.A. annual showcase is one not to have missed, the hard edge sound, the grinding of fingernail across a thousand strings and the crash of a cymbal crying out in a weird hybrid sound of pain and absolute pleasure is enough to grab hold of the person next to you and ask them to make you stop vibrating in a luxuriant abandon, to make you truly see what rock in its most rawest appearance can do.

The threesome took the sound to its maximum, they battered the wood panelling to the point where it wished it was back in the forest surrounded by thicker skinned trees and able to fend of the advancing pulse like effect being deployed in ravaging anger by 69 Watts.

Songs such as Monster, I Want You, Lisa Please and the storming Pressure Seeking converged and blasted layers of dust and decay out of anyone fortunate to witness the event at L.I.P.A. That dust, that decay of spirit revived with the raw taste of victory in the battle won still surrounding the ears, still spinning like an atom bursting with the energy of a nuclear strike in the heart of the sun, hours later, raw and powerful but with absolute control, a lesson some might heed in the future.

Ian D. Hall