Fawn are dazzling and stunning to look at, particularly the songstress in her turquoise frock, and tussled hair with a lock of blonde in the middle. She also has a uniquely stunning voice that hints at Tammy Wynette. The backing band is competent, particularly the double bass player, at their steel stringed noir country blues. It's all just a bit still and dull, and it doesn't help that it gets drowned out by the chatter at the back of the room. However The Hair quickly follows and makes us all forget about Fawn. Having already won a recent battle of the bands competition to open the Wireless Festival, they now want to win a place at Leeds Festival as well. With the confidence and brilliance that they do it tonight that shouldn't be a problem. The Hair has a rubbish name, but when did that stop a band from being good? And The Hair are an unbelievably good scuzzed-up, dance-rock, samples and bleeps band. Taking off from where Clor and The Music began, they collide stabs and swipes of keyboard electro with slabs of guitar rock. The Hair start a little slow but they ease into Left Foot, Right Foot (arguably the best track of the night). Here they arrive into their own with this huge soaring squelching rooftop lifting anthem. By this point the over-excited crowd are jigging along at the front. By the time they play their last track, which sounds like The Ordinary Boys swaggering rock speeded up to the power of 100, the singer is melting in a pool of sweat. The Hair would definitely fit in on the dance stage of the Leeds Festival and blow people away as they have done tonight. It would seem Samsa would have a job beating The Hair's magnificence, but they match them with ease. As Samsa start they announce that they're an unsigned band from Leeds, the question is why are they still unsigned. They've been around for over three years now they have an arsenal of rock and pop songs to match Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys - really they should be the band on before Muse on the main stage of Leeds Festival. This is their second time at the Futuresound Competition after having sound problems last time. A year on and endless gigs and tours later the band are back and sound fit, raw and ready to bite. The trio just ooze confidence as they command and bound around the stage with such heart rendering energy. Plus they have tunes aplenty including the sing-along anthems First, The Light (a song Chris Martin might wish he wrote) and the more aggressive Sweet Disease (which could easily match the power of Muse). They have an expansive sound and passionate singer who has a masterful band with masterful songs. Samsa should definitely earn a place at Leeds Festival. Ben saw Samsa, The Hair, and Fawn in the Futuresound Competition Round 3 @ Leeds Cockpit, July 3 2006. | 
