ALAN POWNALL/ THE WAVE PICTURES/ SLOW CLUB @ THE BORDERLINE 02/02/08

ALAN POWNALL

I'm a sucker for acoustic acts. My itunes is jammed full of guys and gals who sing along with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment and they manage to move me in a way that is so much harder to do with a full band. It's like stripped down emotion where nothing but the sentiment is important and where instruments would cloud the issue. There are others that preach their beliefs or issues and fight causes with their music and I find myself more open to their message than a punk band's. Basically I ultimately find it hard to fault acoustic acts, but there are a few things that can strike a faus pas with me. Alan Pownell manages to find them.

Firstly he sings like an American but, when he speaks between songs you realise that he is not in fact American but a well-spoken Englishman. This is the first disappointment. Secondly the lyrics often mean very little and even manage to flirt with gibberish at times. Lyrically he seems quite like the pop stars James Morrison or James Blunt rather than those who find themselves on my itunes.

His biggest mistake in my eyes was when he decided, on a few occasions, to shush the crowd. Yes, it is annoying when people talk over bands and especially acoustic artists but it is the singer's job to silence them with their music and not with their demands. If you're not good enough to make them be quiet then you're the one failing, and, in demanding that the people who had just come through the door quieten down, he lost my respect and managed to actually anger me. He certainly didn't do enough to silence me, but I just didn't speak.

http://www.myspace.com/alanpownall

THE WAVE PICTURES

The Wave Pictures are a three-piece producing music that sounds like a mix of The Coral, Supergrass, Ocean Colour Scene and all of the bands that your parents used to play when you were a child. They remind me of the sort of band that should be coming out of the jukebox of a country pub on a Sunday while friends play pool and you stand chatting to the landlord and sun is peering through the windows and everyone is smiling. They sound like brit-pop but they sound like the brit-pop bands that didn't manage to outlive the genre. It does feel pretty good though to hear a new band playing that long dead genre live again though.

Having listened to the songs on their myspace, there does appear to be some relatively big differences between their recorded output and their live show. For starters they love solos live. Every song seems to feature a guitar solo and this can get a fair bit too much despite their quality. One thing that doesn't get at all tiresome though are the bass-solos, something that you don't get to see at all often enough. The lyrics are a little off at times too, and this is most evident with the two vocal solos during one song where the band remark on the difference between a sculpture of marmalade and actual marmalade. It just seems daft.

This band are better than the above paragraph lets on though. Their banter between songs is some of the best that I've heard in a long time and their music really is entertaining. They don't bring anything particularly new to the table but they remind me of a time when life seemed easier and more fun, and for that this band on this particular evening were just what was required.

http://www.myspace.com/thewavepictures

SLOW CLUB

Slow Club are a simple band. A boy and a girl; Charles, the boy, plays guitar and Rebecca, the girl, does percussion. They both do vocals. They write simple songs about wonderfully twee things and yet at no point does this twee simplicity get annoying as so often bands of their ilk do. Instead their pop songs make you question why music can't be like this more often. This is my third time of seeing Slow Club and my favourite so far.

On each of the previous occasions Slow Club have proved something to me and tonight was no different. I saw them first around this time last year at the Faversham in Leeds. They were first on and were the only band on the bill that I'd never heard of (they were playing with Dartz! and Hot Club De Paris) and they not only managed to keep me entertained, but they stole the show. I was in love. The second time was supporting Tilly And The Wall at the Electric Ballroom last summer. I had thought that the larger venue might remove the intimate, almost secretive feeling that the band manage to muster with their sound but instead it still seemed as though the rest of the crowd melted away and they were singing for me. It was lovely. Tonight I saw them headlining for the first time and they managed to pepper the set with a plethora of new songs and yet the crowd remained quiet - a real achievement for an acoustic act - and everyone walked away with smiles smothering their faces. So what did they prove to me tonight? This year Slow Club will be releasing one of the albums of 2008. Pretty good for a simple band I'd say.

Slow Club produce life-affirming, touching, folk-pop; the kind of music that everyone with ears should appreciate. It is impossible to find many faults in the band. Charles rarely attempts to try elaborate guitar riffs or solos as it wouldn't be appropriate to the sound. Rebecca will hit or slap or jangle anything that she can find that makes a pretty sound, while there are few things in the world prettier than her voice. It is impossible not to fall in love with this band. Go listen and prove me right.

www.myspace.com/slowclub