LOST ON CAMPUS
The last time that I saw Lost On Campus it was just Rob and a guitar playing songs in a working mans club in Goole at a mutual friend's birthday show while the audience sat on the floor supping their ridiculously cheap plonk. A fair bit has changed since then. Rob has been on a few mini-tours and he has tightened the act accordingly. Also on board now is his trusty laptop providing backing beats and sounds akin to early Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (a sound I feel was superior to when he got the band involved). The nucleus has remained the same though, it's still Rob and his acoustic guitar playing college rock songs about girls.
It is here that you notice Lost On Campus' first problem. British singer-songwriters are supposed to write songs routed in gritty, grimy, mundane reality. Kitchen sink music, sung with a northern or cockney accent. Rob is camp, fun and has songs that are more of the Dashboard Confessional school of acoustic rock than Frank Turner. While this means that I can't see as much of a market for him as those anti-folk starlets coming through, it makes his placing on this pop punk bill suitable and he manages to entertain because of his somewhat cliched lyrics and cheesy laptop accompaniment rather than despite.
The highlight of the set came with a new song written about his dad's death. A tender and heartfelt song that manages to captivate everyone watching and finishes with an explosive applause. Lost On Campus have pop hooks in every song and repeat them often enough for you to still be mouthing them long after the other bands have finished. Not really my kind of acoustic act but still fun and if you're a fan of Dashboard or The Rocket Summer then you would be well advised to check them out.
http://www.myspace.com/lostoncampus
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY
I would imagine that without Flash! Flash! Flash! Photography and England vs. France on the television The Windmill would have been almost empty tonight. A cold, wet Wednesday evening is hardly the optimum choice of conditions for a pop punk gig featuring out of town, barely heard of bands, but 3FP are such a draw (excusing the couple of old geezers in the corner who have yet to realise that watching England friendlies is a pointlessly frustrating experience) that the place is as full as it is.
With a larger stage Mike (lead vocals) finally has the space he desires to take control of the stage, and although the band seem more comfortable, they also seem tired. This coupled with the gig running late from the off means that the band cut the majority of their between song banter and run through the songs with more professionalism but less energy. This is reflected in the crowd who stand stationary until set closer Aquaman when everyone dispenses of their adrenalin reserves and some fun is had. A good gig that just about makes having headed out in the rain worthwhile.
http://www.myspace.com/flashflashflashphotography
MIMI SOYA
I didn't want to mention Paramore. I honestly didn't but when everyone I spoke to before, during and after MiMiSoya compared the two it would seem sloppy of me not to talk of the likeness. To me there is very little similarity and it is unfair of people to instantly throw around negative connotations just because this is girl fronted pop punk.
MiMi Soya do nothing for me though. It just seems to me quite lazy and formulaic, with little to entice me away from those bands that they are influenced by.
http://www.myspace.com/mimisoya
Monday, 14 April 2008
Thursday, 10 April 2008
THE CURE @ WEMBLEY ARENA 20/03/08
THE CURE
If I had to make a list of favourite bands The Cure would be amongst it. If I had to make a list of potential songs that I'd like to cover if I were in a band my hardest decision would be which Cure song to cover or whether to even attempt one in the first place. They are, in my eyes, one of the most important bands to have ever existed and, despite their many changes in line-up, are still one of the only bands I'd have been unhappy to die without seeing. There are amost no reasons at all for me to be willing to part with around £45 to spend the night in Wembley Arena, but The Cure are reason enough to do so. But it was a little more than even I expected and not entirely in a positive way.
I was hoping for a long set, maybe twenty or twenty-five songs; enough to play the majority of the hits to please the likes of me, maybe a couple of album tracks to please the completists and then a few new ones to please the band. But with the band taking to the stage at eight o'clock, I figured that we were either set for an early curfew or an epic set. Seeing that the band ended up playing three encores, forty-one songs and played for at least forty minutes over the curfew, I'd say that it could only be described as epic. For me though, a dedicated and yet casual fan who has never had the time to listen to all of their many albums but has played no album more than their Greatest Hits, it felt a little more like an endurance test by the end. At 11:20 and after thirty-seven songs I did something that I never thought possible at a Cure gig and something I haven't done in years now, I left early with bruised feet and aching calves.
It was impossible for this to be a bad show for me though. If I had written this directly after the gig then I might not have ended this review now and not added this slightly positive ending but retrospect is a wonderful thing. Lacking a brass section and with Wembley working it's cavernous, echo-heavy magic, they sometimes sounded a little empty and lacking, but when they played the songs that I knew, I was so happy I could scream (to quote the band). The backdrop was suitably sparse and the lighting managed to be subtly perfect, and at times this felt like ones of those gigs littered with inspiring, life affirming moments. But then at close to four hours long, I guess they owe you some.
If I had to make a list of favourite bands The Cure would be amongst it. If I had to make a list of potential songs that I'd like to cover if I were in a band my hardest decision would be which Cure song to cover or whether to even attempt one in the first place. They are, in my eyes, one of the most important bands to have ever existed and, despite their many changes in line-up, are still one of the only bands I'd have been unhappy to die without seeing. There are amost no reasons at all for me to be willing to part with around £45 to spend the night in Wembley Arena, but The Cure are reason enough to do so. But it was a little more than even I expected and not entirely in a positive way.
I was hoping for a long set, maybe twenty or twenty-five songs; enough to play the majority of the hits to please the likes of me, maybe a couple of album tracks to please the completists and then a few new ones to please the band. But with the band taking to the stage at eight o'clock, I figured that we were either set for an early curfew or an epic set. Seeing that the band ended up playing three encores, forty-one songs and played for at least forty minutes over the curfew, I'd say that it could only be described as epic. For me though, a dedicated and yet casual fan who has never had the time to listen to all of their many albums but has played no album more than their Greatest Hits, it felt a little more like an endurance test by the end. At 11:20 and after thirty-seven songs I did something that I never thought possible at a Cure gig and something I haven't done in years now, I left early with bruised feet and aching calves.
It was impossible for this to be a bad show for me though. If I had written this directly after the gig then I might not have ended this review now and not added this slightly positive ending but retrospect is a wonderful thing. Lacking a brass section and with Wembley working it's cavernous, echo-heavy magic, they sometimes sounded a little empty and lacking, but when they played the songs that I knew, I was so happy I could scream (to quote the band). The backdrop was suitably sparse and the lighting managed to be subtly perfect, and at times this felt like ones of those gigs littered with inspiring, life affirming moments. But then at close to four hours long, I guess they owe you some.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
FOALS @ ASTORIA 17/03/08
FOALS
Foals are a bunch of incredibly talented musicians. Every instrument is mastered; the drumming is precise complexities, the lead guitarist manages to play terribly difficult guitar parts whilst throwing himself around in a manner where I'd struggle to even stay on my feet, and even Yannis with his yelped vocals manage to make the perfect equilateral band. But they also manage to prove why the current popularity of 'rock' music is actually a detrimental force to the scene. Foals are yet to release their album at the time that they play this show and yet they've sold out a 2000 capacity venue, have been main support for a Bloc Party tour that ended with two nights at Alexandra Palace and have appeared on the front cover of every appropriate music publication. Which leaves you wondering, 'All of this on the back of a couple of singles?' If this had happened five years ago they'd be headlining the Barfly or possibly The Garage and getting tiny columns in the 'To Be Watched' sections of the music press. Instead we have a band who have so much potential they have some saved in off-shore accounts, but who appear to be suffering from the spotlight too soon. It is apparent in their performance tonight and even in their debut album.
The singles, as expected, manage to stand out in the set, while Olympic Airwaves and set-closer Electric Bloom manage to stand their own, but too often it seems as though something is missing. Perhaps it is the self-belief that would normally come from working their way up through the venues over years or perhaps they were just suffering from the end-of-tour-tiredness, but whatever it is I'm left feeling empty. While the band prove tonight that they should be one of the best UK bands to emerge in the noughties, they will only achieve this if they're given the time to build a sound on their ability without too much expectation.
http://www.myspace.com/foals
Foals are a bunch of incredibly talented musicians. Every instrument is mastered; the drumming is precise complexities, the lead guitarist manages to play terribly difficult guitar parts whilst throwing himself around in a manner where I'd struggle to even stay on my feet, and even Yannis with his yelped vocals manage to make the perfect equilateral band. But they also manage to prove why the current popularity of 'rock' music is actually a detrimental force to the scene. Foals are yet to release their album at the time that they play this show and yet they've sold out a 2000 capacity venue, have been main support for a Bloc Party tour that ended with two nights at Alexandra Palace and have appeared on the front cover of every appropriate music publication. Which leaves you wondering, 'All of this on the back of a couple of singles?' If this had happened five years ago they'd be headlining the Barfly or possibly The Garage and getting tiny columns in the 'To Be Watched' sections of the music press. Instead we have a band who have so much potential they have some saved in off-shore accounts, but who appear to be suffering from the spotlight too soon. It is apparent in their performance tonight and even in their debut album.
The singles, as expected, manage to stand out in the set, while Olympic Airwaves and set-closer Electric Bloom manage to stand their own, but too often it seems as though something is missing. Perhaps it is the self-belief that would normally come from working their way up through the venues over years or perhaps they were just suffering from the end-of-tour-tiredness, but whatever it is I'm left feeling empty. While the band prove tonight that they should be one of the best UK bands to emerge in the noughties, they will only achieve this if they're given the time to build a sound on their ability without too much expectation.
http://www.myspace.com/foals
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY @ THE SOCIAL 17/03/08
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY
3FP are impossible to generalise. Marsha of Xfm fame labelled them 'fight-pop'. Now, even putting my hatred for genres that make no sense and are lacking in any indication as to the band's musical stylings aside (if I were to not disregard it I'd label them 'party-core'), I disagree. She also puts Tellison in the same group but you'd hardly lump them together. In fairness she has only heard Aquaman and you could draw some comparisons there I guess, but this band currently seem unable to decide what they want to sound like and instead sound like bits of everything. This is charming in a way, but disjointed too and I'd imagine that people might love one song and then head to the bar during the one after as it's not their kind of thing.
Tonight they air two new songs, both of which hint at a more defined direction. The first to be played, Beeps And Clicks, is one that the band have been championing as their biggest 'hit' yet, so much so that it has even found it's way into their Facebook statuses. And yet tonight it fails to grab me. Unlike the other debutant, Steven Glansberg, which leaves myself and others around me dumbfounded. Sounding like a Kerrang! mash-up of The Bronx's Californian rock 'n' roll with smatterings of the pop-hardcore of Set Your Goals and even a shake of Be Your Own Pet's youthful abandonment, 3FP have managed to write one of my favourite songs of 2008.
I feared them topping that and, had it not been for their especially prepared cover of Flying Without Wings by Westlife in honour of St Patrick's Day, I doubt they would have. Starting at the regular pace of the ballad, the tempo slowly crept up on me until Mike was in full screaming and the band were in sloppy-punk mode, at which point Folu would interject with the next verse at the original speed and take the song off the boil just to build it up again. An incredible adaption that proves that the band really know how to make a song their own, they followed that with traditional set-closer, Aquaman and I left for the Astoria a happy fan.
http://www.myspace.com/flashflashflashphotography
3FP are impossible to generalise. Marsha of Xfm fame labelled them 'fight-pop'. Now, even putting my hatred for genres that make no sense and are lacking in any indication as to the band's musical stylings aside (if I were to not disregard it I'd label them 'party-core'), I disagree. She also puts Tellison in the same group but you'd hardly lump them together. In fairness she has only heard Aquaman and you could draw some comparisons there I guess, but this band currently seem unable to decide what they want to sound like and instead sound like bits of everything. This is charming in a way, but disjointed too and I'd imagine that people might love one song and then head to the bar during the one after as it's not their kind of thing.
Tonight they air two new songs, both of which hint at a more defined direction. The first to be played, Beeps And Clicks, is one that the band have been championing as their biggest 'hit' yet, so much so that it has even found it's way into their Facebook statuses. And yet tonight it fails to grab me. Unlike the other debutant, Steven Glansberg, which leaves myself and others around me dumbfounded. Sounding like a Kerrang! mash-up of The Bronx's Californian rock 'n' roll with smatterings of the pop-hardcore of Set Your Goals and even a shake of Be Your Own Pet's youthful abandonment, 3FP have managed to write one of my favourite songs of 2008.
I feared them topping that and, had it not been for their especially prepared cover of Flying Without Wings by Westlife in honour of St Patrick's Day, I doubt they would have. Starting at the regular pace of the ballad, the tempo slowly crept up on me until Mike was in full screaming and the band were in sloppy-punk mode, at which point Folu would interject with the next verse at the original speed and take the song off the boil just to build it up again. An incredible adaption that proves that the band really know how to make a song their own, they followed that with traditional set-closer, Aquaman and I left for the Astoria a happy fan.
http://www.myspace.com/flashflashflashphotography
LENNY KRAVITZ @ KOKO 13/03/08
LENNY KRAVITZ
I was raised on Lenny Kravitz. When I try to remember the first song that I ever saw on MTV, back when MTV was just the one channel, I think of Are You Gonna Go My Way by Kravitz. I remember the lights and the female drummer. I think of the dreads. And it is not at all surprising that I think of that riff. He was always one of those acts that I'd love to see based purely on my youth, but I only bought tickets for this show due to my mum desperately wanting to see him. At £40.20 each ticket after fees I certainly wouldn't have bought tickets if it weren't for her. I was even less enthused when I found out that there would be no support. All of that money for just one man, and what turned out to be a one hour and forty-five minute set.
It wasn't really worth it. He has produced many albums each crammed with a ton of filler and the odd anthemic single. With this show destined to be used to road-test his latest album, Love Revolution, live, I understood that we would probably get half hits and half shite. Something that I did not expect however was Lenny Kravitz to bring with him his merry bunch of talented session musicians (including a brass section) and then masquerade as the new James Brown, extending his new songs into jazz-funk odysseys that were more just odd. The one saving grace was his ability to pull out a hit at just the right moment to remind me that he can write them, and with songs like Mr Cab Driver, Again and Fly Away unleashed he managed to appease me.
Well until Let Love Rule that is. Having kept the older songs to their original length previously, he decided to extend this one by continually repeating the title lyric, before he began preaching unity, brotherhood, Christianity and a need for a 'Love Revolution' to the crowd. He then asked for people to join him on stage for a mass dance along. The whole thing was painful. Looking over the faces of the crowd you could see that his search for community had been successful, it just meant that everyone was united in alienating his warmth with beautiful British cynicism. Some things are best left to the past it seems.
http://www.myspace.com/lennykravitz
I was raised on Lenny Kravitz. When I try to remember the first song that I ever saw on MTV, back when MTV was just the one channel, I think of Are You Gonna Go My Way by Kravitz. I remember the lights and the female drummer. I think of the dreads. And it is not at all surprising that I think of that riff. He was always one of those acts that I'd love to see based purely on my youth, but I only bought tickets for this show due to my mum desperately wanting to see him. At £40.20 each ticket after fees I certainly wouldn't have bought tickets if it weren't for her. I was even less enthused when I found out that there would be no support. All of that money for just one man, and what turned out to be a one hour and forty-five minute set.
It wasn't really worth it. He has produced many albums each crammed with a ton of filler and the odd anthemic single. With this show destined to be used to road-test his latest album, Love Revolution, live, I understood that we would probably get half hits and half shite. Something that I did not expect however was Lenny Kravitz to bring with him his merry bunch of talented session musicians (including a brass section) and then masquerade as the new James Brown, extending his new songs into jazz-funk odysseys that were more just odd. The one saving grace was his ability to pull out a hit at just the right moment to remind me that he can write them, and with songs like Mr Cab Driver, Again and Fly Away unleashed he managed to appease me.
Well until Let Love Rule that is. Having kept the older songs to their original length previously, he decided to extend this one by continually repeating the title lyric, before he began preaching unity, brotherhood, Christianity and a need for a 'Love Revolution' to the crowd. He then asked for people to join him on stage for a mass dance along. The whole thing was painful. Looking over the faces of the crowd you could see that his search for community had been successful, it just meant that everyone was united in alienating his warmth with beautiful British cynicism. Some things are best left to the past it seems.
http://www.myspace.com/lennykravitz
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE @ BUSH HALL 05/03/08
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone are like watching that moment in City Of Angels when Meg Ryan dies and Nicholas Cage is left alone having given up an eternity for a few measly hours with her. It is like the moment when Anna leaves in The O.C. and Seth is left, tears in his eyes and his nose pressed against the glass of the airport check-in window. It is like those songs that you listen to when you break up with the kind of girl or guy who shape your life and is like when your best friend leaves for another country and you wonder how you ever coped before you met them. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone manage to harness all of that misery and emotion and melancholy and make songs out of it, songs that make your stomach tangle and your throat dry. Live this only happens quicker and more emphatically.
Drawing largely from Etiquette they only really leave out Tonight Was A Disaster from the 'must play' list of songs, but this really doesn't matter. Opening with Cold White Christmas, Owen Ashworth (the man behind CFTPA) has the audience hushed and attentive from the very off. His electro-fused emo couldn't be better suited to his sullen, almost monotone vocals that express his stories of abandonment, false hope and emptiness with aplomb. And so, when Jenny Herbinson joins him on stage to add some female vocals to the mix, it is quite a surprise to find that her innocent, borderline naive, sunshine-like personality manages to add just the right tone to the songs to give them an idea of possibility, but the kind of possibility that would never come true. The highlight of the set for me though was Hobby Holly where Owen sang alone, unaccompanied by any instrument for the vast majority of the song before a small explosion of sound toward the end. Somehow, cutting the clutter and just having the voice, broken and unashamed, singing as though it were only him and Holly in the room managed to make the whole song so much more poignant.
Somewhat coincidentally this show happened to be the very first that I went to alone. It didn't end up being at all painful however. CFTPA are a band that are best suited to having no distractions, nothing to disturb your mind from fixating on the beautiful agony of real life represented without shame or excuses, just a hope that one day a smile will see you through.
http://www.myspace.com/cftpa
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone are like watching that moment in City Of Angels when Meg Ryan dies and Nicholas Cage is left alone having given up an eternity for a few measly hours with her. It is like the moment when Anna leaves in The O.C. and Seth is left, tears in his eyes and his nose pressed against the glass of the airport check-in window. It is like those songs that you listen to when you break up with the kind of girl or guy who shape your life and is like when your best friend leaves for another country and you wonder how you ever coped before you met them. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone manage to harness all of that misery and emotion and melancholy and make songs out of it, songs that make your stomach tangle and your throat dry. Live this only happens quicker and more emphatically.
Drawing largely from Etiquette they only really leave out Tonight Was A Disaster from the 'must play' list of songs, but this really doesn't matter. Opening with Cold White Christmas, Owen Ashworth (the man behind CFTPA) has the audience hushed and attentive from the very off. His electro-fused emo couldn't be better suited to his sullen, almost monotone vocals that express his stories of abandonment, false hope and emptiness with aplomb. And so, when Jenny Herbinson joins him on stage to add some female vocals to the mix, it is quite a surprise to find that her innocent, borderline naive, sunshine-like personality manages to add just the right tone to the songs to give them an idea of possibility, but the kind of possibility that would never come true. The highlight of the set for me though was Hobby Holly where Owen sang alone, unaccompanied by any instrument for the vast majority of the song before a small explosion of sound toward the end. Somehow, cutting the clutter and just having the voice, broken and unashamed, singing as though it were only him and Holly in the room managed to make the whole song so much more poignant.
Somewhat coincidentally this show happened to be the very first that I went to alone. It didn't end up being at all painful however. CFTPA are a band that are best suited to having no distractions, nothing to disturb your mind from fixating on the beautiful agony of real life represented without shame or excuses, just a hope that one day a smile will see you through.
http://www.myspace.com/cftpa
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
SLOW CLUB/ THE WAVE PICTURES @ THE ENTERPRISE 04/03/08
SLOW CLUB
This is the third time that I've seen Slow Club in 2008 and I'm getting to a point where it is impossible to describe quite how great they are. So I will try to explain it in an alternative way. Having introduced an ex-girlfriend of mine to them at the beginning of the year and her now being just as much of a fan as I a, I decided to buy an extra ticket on this occasion too and introduce my best friend to them. To put it simply, he has asked me to not only ensure that I buy him a ticket for every gig I go to that Slow Club play in future, but also for me to introduce him to more bands that I like in the future. Apparently they're good enough to reinstate his faith in my music taste.
The band currently only have a single that has been released as well as an early demo (or at least that's all that I've been able to get my hands on) and so they draw largely from songs that will be appearing on their imminent debut album. However, where some bands might suffer with this unfamiliarity, Slow Club manage to make their music seem familiar. Perhaps this is in it's simplicity, or perhaps it is due to the catchy, pop-like elements of their acoustic, stripped-down music. Ultimately I feel that Slow Club manage to answer that age-old question of, 'If I love this band this much how can other people not feel the same?' Slow Club, it would appear, make it impossible not to like them.
I will inevitably see this band at least five or six times more this year. It seems that I'm powerless to buy tickets and desperate to see them in action. You should see them, I promise that you will start paying more attention to my recommendations if you do.
http://www.myspace.com/slowclub
THE WAVE PICTURES
When I saw The Wave Pictures supporting Slow Club just over a month ago I was a fan of the way they went about their music even if their music didn't appeal to me greatly. There was a certain swagger and light-heartedness about their performance, from the soloing on lead and bass guitars to the giggle-worthy banter between songs, all of which seems to have been lost in this performance. Perhaps the band are taking the show a little more seriously due to the packed room and their headline slot, but I feel that something vital has definitely been lost in the process.
I expected my friend - the one that I dragged along to see Slow Club - to really like The Wave Pictures. They're currently producing music that belongs in the mid-90s but seems current enough to warrant a revival. My friend, who I remember loving Suede and Supergrass and other bands that once graced the superb 'Shine' series, should lap these up. But instead he appears totally uninterested. I am too and I'm starting to feel embarrassed for expecting him to be a fan. I'm certain that he would have been had he seen them at the Borderline when they managed to impress me. Tonight we both decided to leave early instead.
http://www.myspace.com/thewavepictures
This is the third time that I've seen Slow Club in 2008 and I'm getting to a point where it is impossible to describe quite how great they are. So I will try to explain it in an alternative way. Having introduced an ex-girlfriend of mine to them at the beginning of the year and her now being just as much of a fan as I a, I decided to buy an extra ticket on this occasion too and introduce my best friend to them. To put it simply, he has asked me to not only ensure that I buy him a ticket for every gig I go to that Slow Club play in future, but also for me to introduce him to more bands that I like in the future. Apparently they're good enough to reinstate his faith in my music taste.
The band currently only have a single that has been released as well as an early demo (or at least that's all that I've been able to get my hands on) and so they draw largely from songs that will be appearing on their imminent debut album. However, where some bands might suffer with this unfamiliarity, Slow Club manage to make their music seem familiar. Perhaps this is in it's simplicity, or perhaps it is due to the catchy, pop-like elements of their acoustic, stripped-down music. Ultimately I feel that Slow Club manage to answer that age-old question of, 'If I love this band this much how can other people not feel the same?' Slow Club, it would appear, make it impossible not to like them.
I will inevitably see this band at least five or six times more this year. It seems that I'm powerless to buy tickets and desperate to see them in action. You should see them, I promise that you will start paying more attention to my recommendations if you do.
http://www.myspace.com/slowclub
THE WAVE PICTURES
When I saw The Wave Pictures supporting Slow Club just over a month ago I was a fan of the way they went about their music even if their music didn't appeal to me greatly. There was a certain swagger and light-heartedness about their performance, from the soloing on lead and bass guitars to the giggle-worthy banter between songs, all of which seems to have been lost in this performance. Perhaps the band are taking the show a little more seriously due to the packed room and their headline slot, but I feel that something vital has definitely been lost in the process.
I expected my friend - the one that I dragged along to see Slow Club - to really like The Wave Pictures. They're currently producing music that belongs in the mid-90s but seems current enough to warrant a revival. My friend, who I remember loving Suede and Supergrass and other bands that once graced the superb 'Shine' series, should lap these up. But instead he appears totally uninterested. I am too and I'm starting to feel embarrassed for expecting him to be a fan. I'm certain that he would have been had he seen them at the Borderline when they managed to impress me. Tonight we both decided to leave early instead.
http://www.myspace.com/thewavepictures
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