SUJITOKO, recent graduates of Southern Cross University, are certainly the quintessential band doing the hard yards to break through.

But it perhaps wasn’t the best time to review this band as they were missing their saxophone player (couldn’t turn down a gig with Lisa Hunt), their keyboard player and their drummer (who had hotter gigs).

Maybe it’s no coincidence their name means ’a little bit ‘o this and a little bit ‘o that’.

To make life even harder, the gig was only yards from the Lennox Point Hotel stage to the beach.

Even the lead singer, Lydia Story said ‘it was a tease working up a sweat on stage while the beach was at the doorstep’.

Despite these challenges, SujiToko kept everyone’s attention with plenty of variety, from great covers of Scatterbox and Erykah Badu to their originals which they describe as NuJazzFusion.

A couple of musician friends filled in: an extra lead guitar replaced the keyboard and another on drums whose style required the band to sacrifice some of the jazz-blues feel.

Vocalist and bass guitarist Luke Ferguson wooed the crowd with his cover version of Jeff Buckley’s Everybody Here Wants You.

After Luke sang, it left you wanting more of his soulful voice.

Regular lead guitarist Cameron and ring-in Tim dominated the second set with long guitar solos. Rex filled in on drums with aplomb despite having only three days to learn the songs.

Despite the struggle to pull the band together, SujiToko did well and showed that with all the regulars they could really make an impact.

So if you had to be inside on a beautiful summer’s day, then the place to be was a session at the Lennox Point Hotel where you could listen to a promising young band.

– Julie Ray