So I was a bad, bad 52weeker and took a “pseudo-week-off.” Too many birthdays, another Scarlet Box/Evolver/Parlotones gig, and a desire to showcase both bands from a gig at Nile Crocodile, lead me to technically skip a week, but not actually. Hey, whatever. I make the rules in this place anyway. 
We arrived rather late on a cold Saturday evening at Nile. It was dead empty. Of course it was Oppikoppi weekend, so emptiness was to be expected and I just hadn’t mustered up the courage or the support group to survive the trials of a frozen Rock Paper Scissors experience. Besides I needed to cash in. Oscar owed me Birthday Beer.
And so, for week 14, the band we saw was Synapse, a young, up-and-coming 4 piece rock outfit with a cool attitude and great vocal-driven tunes. Their sound borders on melodic rock. They have a number of ballads in their set and the vocalist has a unique and distinct voice to get the message out – something that could work very well for their future. They struggled a bit with the sound technician to get the everything properly tweaked, but with maybe ten people in the audience this really was a good time for them to practice getting their kit nicely tuned for a big venue.
They started off fairly loose, and a bit ragged – the fingers were probably frozen – but by the end of the second song their set was tightening up nicely. The lead singer has a powerful voice, but he sometimes seems to lack direction in what he should be doing with it. We also noticed that the beginning of each song sounded a bit flaky, but once they reached the halfway mark in each song they really stepped up and brought it all together. 
Ending up with a great ballad, Synapse in their set went from a complete unknown to a bright blip on the rock radar. They look like they’re hungry and passionate to be heard, and their sound is quite unique. Definitely gonna keep an eye on these guys.
Beer Price: Hehe, umm, free? For me anyway.
Quality of sound: 7.0
Rockstar rating: 7.5
Overall rating: 7.5
Tags: 52Weeks, Synapse, rock, music, SouthAfrica, NileCrocodile, band, Pretoria, SouthAfricaMusic
I listened to Synapse at Nile as well , and their set was excellent. Not many people that night , but I haven’t heard ,( and I listened carefully to the songs they played ), many bands with this sort of quality and style of rock. Their first song was scratchy and the soundman’s balance wasn’t good , but wow , what a band.I’d give them more than 7.5.
brett
August 24th, 2006
Hey Brett,
Yeah, rating the band out of ten is the part I hate the most, but I have to give some sort of (biased) measure.
I dig the fact that you reckon they should score better.
Anonymous
August 25th, 2006