What's in a name? The classic cliché. The question occurred to me when I was invited to a gig by a friend of mine. There is a certain kind of reaction when people tell you certain things. It's as true in my line of work when somebody says "I've written this thing, I think you might like it, can you read it and give me your comments?" It's that certain mix of interest and fear, in fact the same mix that comes when somebody says "um I'm in a band".

At the point that this question floated into my brain, I had a flyer in my hand and a list of band names, which would it be? Band names are particularly odd because while they are chosen they often are never referred to anywhere else. It's generally considered bad form to refer to your band name in your lyrics.

So what was the band name? Bugfly*

And who do I know in Bugfly? Scott Hoodless**

My first concern was my attire. I arrived wearing a suit and was worried in case there was a sign saying you must look at least this indie to enter. Just as I was walking up I noticed two other people I recognised who were both wearing suits too.

Now a problem. I had originally imagined that I was going to be alone. But now I realized the situation it was in my mind immediately turned to one thing: Beer. Not to drown my sorrows because this surely, was a good thing. But instead my instant thought was about the round situation. I knew I probably had enough for three beers but not four.

Why four? Because there was somebody who I didn't recognise there. In fact it turned out to be a brother in law.

In this kind of situation there is only one thing you can reasonably do and that is opt out of the whole round situation. But did I do the reasonable thing?

Of course not! I accepted beer that I couldn't possibly pay back. A terrible sin. There was one possible saving grace of course. I could try and buy three beers at some point and hope they didn't notice.

A perfect plan. And with this in my mind I felt happy to let myself be sucked in by peer pressure.

So I go up to the bar as my turn arrives. I go for broke. I'm counting every last thing in my pocket when I realise that there is simply no way I can afford three beers. What to do? The bartender points out a cheaper beer. But that's no good, I know that the first thing they'll think about is how odd this is and there will be no way for me to subtly use my old beer bottle as cover.

But there is no other option. I must buy the cheaper brand. This is an interesting point anyway. It's actually Stella Artois which advertises itself as being "reassuringly expensive". So anyway I buy three of them and bring them back to the group. One of the group asks me why I have only bought three (he does this with hand gestures at this point because the music is too loud for conversation at the distance he is sitting**** from me).

So I hand gesture back that it was because of money and Neil, very kindly, goes and buys me another beer.

Obviously though I still haven't explained fully the change in beer, because it makes me sound a bit silly probably. The brother in law decides to take the labels off his Budweiser and puts them onto his bottle of Stella which helps to sustain my embarrassment.

Anyway at some point around now Bugfly take to the stage and as I have already revealed we all stood up.

And now, I suppose, I should really turn to the matter of Bugfly's music. But this is a bit of a tricky one really.

The main problem is describing what they sound like. Because the universal method of describing bands seem to be the same one used by movie reviewers. It goes something like this "a mix of X and Y" or "Y with the feel of X" or "if X were on acid provided to them by Y" and so on. And the thing with that kind of reviewing is that nobody comes out of it clean. The bands who are being name checked get out okay, the only lingering suggestion is that they might have something missing, but the band that's being reviewed comes out of it terribly. It makes them sound incredibly derivative and what's more, as far as I can tell, no decent band ever sounds like just two of their predecessors. Any great band will, inevitably, borrow huge chunks from the bands that came before them but they will also always bring something new. The reviewer who uses this convention, of course, comes out worst of all as someone who can't think for themselves.

However I can see exactly why they do it because how do you describe the sound a band makes? The easiest way is to avoid describing it by using signposts people are already familiar with. And this method will often get you somewhere close.

For Bugfly however there is a different problem. Most comments I've heard have got their sound wrong. And because there is one obvious factor people tend to be focusing on that rather than coming up with an actual answer.

The problem is that Bugfly have a female lead singer - this is not a problem in itself, certainly not when your female lead singer can really sing like Patty Szabo can - the problem is that every comment I've heard so far seems to compare them to other female led rock groups. And the connections seem to be almost random. I think it's actually that they just name a female led rock group from around the time the got into music.

But Bugfly don't sound like and other female fronted rock group I've ever heard - not really. They sound much more like a band who just happen to have a female singer rather than a band which is built around this. And that's quite a strength.

So what do I think of Bugfly? Well I'm not sure about the name (but we'll leave that to one side). They are a proto band. Lots of great features, lots of clever use of time and volume changes, less keen to allow one instrument (and I'm including Patty's voice here) to take over for a bit then they should be and at time you sense everything coming together in a polished way and at times you get a sense of something really fresh aching to break through the only problem at the moment is these two elements don't seem to be lined up just yet. But it will come.

So that's what I think. To find out what you think I'd suggest going to see the. And by the way I wouldn't hang about. If you don't see them soon you won't be able to brag about having seen them before they were famous.

* This name actually gives me the chance to wheel out an odd fact that's been lurking around for a while but has never made it into an article. I'm sure you've noticed that flies always seem to be rubbing their hands together. Why is a question that you may very well have not considered until I just brought this up but I'm going to tell you anyway. They are cleaning themselves. And I know that flies will probably never have occurred to you as a clean creature by that's certainly what they are doing. But in one of the great ironies of life comes the reason that they clean themselves so often. Flies main taste receptors are in their legs so they need to be really clean so they can really taste the crap they are standing on better.

** I've noticed that some people, and in the "some people" I certainly don't include myself, call Scott "Noodles". Now this practice surely has to stop. As I'm sure you are all aware there is already a Noodles in the popular beat combo The Offspring*** and surely they wouldn't want to get the two confused.

*** Do you add the "the" or not? The band had a "the" on the first album and lost it subsequently. Apparently, legend has it, that the "the" went missing due to a clerical error but the band embraced the new name and made it their own.

**** It's important to note that this wasn't a seated gig, it was standing but they did happen to have a few arm chairs at the back in case of emergencies or for sitting on. The arm chairs were used during the band who were on first but not during Bugfly which may tell you something right off.