Vocalists. How many does a band need?

Sally says one, and that's fine. It's the tried and trusted format and obviously it works. The towering vocalist is flanked by two hairy guys as they dish up some genuine 100 percent stoner rock action. Reminiscent of the late, great Acrimony, particularly in their use of dramatic time changes and ability to sit on a groove, Sally go down well with the ample crowd although no one ventures within ten feet of the stage.

Raging Speed Horn are next and they take the slightly more unconventional view that two vocalists is the key. It's an excellent idea as, if you're going to make an obnoxious noise, why not get an extra singer in to make it twice as noisy? The two guys in question here are Frank and John and they go down a storm. Like some twisted tag team they trade lines and stalk the stage with murderous intent while the rest of the band lays down a blistering foundation of hardcore iron monkey style sludge. They are nothing short of a revelation, staying silent and focussed between songs and pummelling the crowd with progressively more devastating tunes with gleefully evil titles like Necrophiliac Glue Sniffer and Knives and Faces. They even manage to ignore the ridiculous goth girl fairy-prancing about in front of the stage. Superb.

Roadsaw clearly don't think you need a band at all, never mind a singer, as their failure to show up throws us the evening's only downer. Never mind. I didn't want to see them anyway. Honest.

No singer at all thanks. Just guitar, bass and drums is enough for Karma to Burn these days, following numerous vocalist problems and their subsequent declaration that they had intended to be purely instrumental all along. So no singalongs here, unless you make the noises of the riffs of course (ner-ner-ner-na-wooooh etc.).

It's a slightly strange idea for a band to play what is actually pretty much straightforward rock music with no vocals (no ambient soundscapes or anything like that) and I was a little dubious as to whether they'd be able to maintain the interest level through a whole live set, but I am happy to say that they can. They may lack a central vocalist/frontman, but compensate with Will on guitar and Rich on bass and their livewire stage presence and what they call genuine synchronised rock n' roll (although this synchronisation just seems to involve them both raising their guitar neck together a few times). Rich in particular is eminently watchable, his facial expression as he gazes out at individual members of the audience half way between serial killer and a kid on Christmas day.

They play all the hits. You know. Twenty, Three, Thirty One etc. and even keep the crowd happy with a snippet of Highway to Hell featuring an excellent Bon Scott impersonation from Will as Rich fumbles with his non functioning bass. Karma To Burn are all about energy and they provide plenty of it, encouraging all manner of sweaty enthusiasm from the crowd who leap about non stop to the K2B thang. Mental metal instrumentals.

So that's it. None, one or two singers: It's all good. (9)