Críticas

Thu 14 May – The Great Escape

My Latest NovelThe VeilsMicachu and the ShapesCrystal AntlersThe Phantom BandVivian Girls

Unblievably I count 5 people in the room as My Latest Novel start their horrifically under advertised set at the Free Butt. It is an absolute crying shame as this lots swelling, undulating, emotional post rock is pitched somewhere between Frightened Rabbit and Mogwai. The band chose to heavily represent their new album Deaths and Entrances, which was a shame as I prefer their first. However, the quality and heartfelt performances of tracks like All In All is All and I Declare A Ceasefire were undeniable.

Next up were The Veils who having listened to them on record I really enjoyed but the live experience was very dull indeed. I'm not even sure the backing vocalists mike was on. Despite Finn Andrews' excellent voice and decent stage presence there was a smell of cheese about the whole performance that suggests The Veils have some hopelessly unrealistic delusions of grandeur.

Following at the Sallis Benny theatre were the much hyped Micachu and The Shapes and in general they are very enjoyable, with the high moments of the album excellent and the fillers interupting the flow of the set. What was more impressive was a sound that on record appears to be loose and ramshackle was actually tight and impressive live. Though one lowlight of the set was the absolute BELL END stood 3 paces away from me that saw fit to bellow into his mobile phone when the band were playing a song. Just leave briefly or send a text.

Due to there being a long wait before British Sea Power because of Mystery Jets cancellation I decided to make it up to Pavillion Theatre for The Phantom Band with the aim of later seeing Holy Fuck. First though I am in time to catch the tail end of Crystal Antlers set and an absolutely incendiary Parting Song For The Torn Sky but more about them later.

The Phantom Band were the absolute revelaltion of the weekend so far and their impressive debut album Checkmate Savage isn't a patch on their fearsome live sound. The building block is a rythym section that is groovy, dancy and monumentally heavy at the same time. Add 3 guitars that all appear to be playing a different song at times (but in a good way), an excellent voice and some fantastic bleepy synthesiser. Lest I forget the occassional bashing of shelf brackets. 'The Howling' has the drama of Radiohead, the jerkyness of Joy Division and the danceability of LCD Soundsystem on an acid trip. Do not miss this band again!

The real reason I turned up a the Pavillion Theatre was to see if I could purge myself of any lingering liking for the Vivian Girls and it worked. Musically they are adept and make a pretty fearsome racket for 3 of them and the drummer in particular looks like Keith Moon's satanic daughter. Their voices however are poor, which detracts massively from the music and I leave after three tracks to try and get into Holy Fuck.

Needn't have bothered as the Komedia was packed so I hotfooted it down to Hectors House to see Crystal Antlers second set of the evenng. To be first greeted with the most braindead, mundane band I have seen in many a year, Polly Scattergood. Think Kate Bush if you replaced her vocal chords with Barbara Windsors and wrote unbelievably boring, pretensious, overlong, self important lyrics that made Oasis look like Wordsworth. What made me even more angry was that people were encoraging this waste of oxygen by actually clapping her. Can someone tell me why? Surely nobody actually enjoyed this garbage? A brief bit of research told me that this girl has written over 800 songs and she couldn't even find a half decent one to play. Burn every one of them or better still send them to MI6 so they can use them for torturing terror suspects, just never darken my door again.

Crystal Antlers second set of the night was absolutely first class, with their ramshacakle psychadelic garage punk rock owing equal debts to The Stooges, The Doors and Take It From the Man! era Brian Jonestown Massacre. The first thing you notice about the band is the remarkable level of fun being had on stage, with a tight groovy rythym section, howling vocals and the one man fun machine that is their secondary percussionist (think Joel Gion crossed with Bez.) The second is that despite the sheer volume and rock and roll nature of these songs they are monumentally groovy and catchy. By the end of the set the crowd were desperate for more despite already having had an encore. I personally could have watched and listened to them all night.

Tomorrow night will see me attempt to catch British Sea Power. I'll more than likely end up seeing Polly Shat-her-pants again.