Sexta-feira 17 Nov 2006, 19h:46

Live Review

SixNationState, The Mopes + The Kings Shilling
Long Live Rock and Roll, Lennon's, 11th November 2006

Review by Rob Ball.

When I arrive at the venue, I am greeted by huge queue of eagerly awaiting fans ready to see SixNationState playing the last date of their 'Fire!' tour at their spiritual home, Lennon's. Once inside the venue fills up rapidly and there is a buzzing atmosphere, you get the sense that this is going to be a very special gig.

First up are The Kings Shilling who immediately remind me of The House Martins, but as the set progresses a more Libertines-esque rawness comes through. However, this seems to be their downfall, as each song starts to sound similar and I start to lose interest after a while. When the female vocals are there to accompany the band, this varies the sound enough for me to pay attention again. There's nothing here that makes me dislike them, and I'd say that 50% of their material on show here tonight is pretty damn impressive, but on tonight's performance, there's nothing here that makes me want to write a rave review either.

The Mopes have had a lot of interest on the local scene recently and deservedly so. Their Deep South bluegrass sound sweeps everyone away from this cold winter night in Southampton to a scene straight from The Blues Brothers. Still, the sound is distinctly their own, and they bring a unique blend of rock and indie into the blend and the low-fi keyboard brings in a modern edge. This stuff is toe-tappingly good, and even when they slow it down, I found myself dancing away. The Mopes have a lot going for them, and bring in the influences of old and new to make music that appeals to everyone.

The final act of the night are the band that everyone has been waiting for, Jeepster's new signing, SixNationState. They have come a long way since playing their first gig at Lennon's last year, and the capacity crowd blowing their SixNationState glow in the dark whistles make sure the band knew it. Ripping into 'Can't Let Go', the whole place erupted, this was unlike anything Lennon's had ever seen before, everyone from the front to the back of the room were dancing like there was no tomorrow. Gerry then introduces 'Taking Me Over', the B side to their current single 'Fire!', which had everyone singing along to the undoubtedly future anthem. 'Where Are You Now' is a song about an ex member, which considering the status of the band at the moment, is slightly premature to be writing songs about, but there is always room for a big ego in rock, and Gerry is a serious and welcome contender to take Johnny Borrell's throne. The set stayed at the same 160mph pace with 'So Long', the brilliant 'Everybody Wants To Be My Friend' and '1234' until 'Stole The Sun' which has a great Beatles inspired guitar hook, and even though the foot was taken off the gas, the band didn't loose the crowd one little bit. 'Up and Down' finished the set before the obvious encore of 'Blow Your Mind' and single 'Fire!' with the sing along 'Woo Woo's' being belted out by the crowd

It was evident that the band enjoyed every minute of tonight's gig, in a chat with Gerry after the show he said "what an amazing gig, the crowd went nuts and we couldn't have wished for a better way to finish our first UK tour", I couldn't agree with him more. The band now head back to Latvia to record the rest of their debut album, due out next spring. This is one record that I cannot wait to get my hands on, SixNationState WILL be the shining stars of 2007! But for now… WOO WOO!