Author: Crossfire

Alexandra Palace
30.11.07

New York, New York post punk rockers, Interpol, hit London in fine form last Friday when they slowly, but gracefully, set the Palace on fire with one of the best live gigs I’ve ever set ears to. They have a wonderful sound with extracts of the Editors, Joy Division, The Cure and even The Strokes (in their early years).

They use repetitious guitar riffs and focus quite heavily on bass which when accompanied by smart vocals results in a very unique yet very New York type of sound. They are a bright bunch of talented musicians and write music far beyond most of the rubbish that gets radio play these days and therefore capture my attention much easier than some ex Libertine hero whose shambles can only be explained as ‘white’ noise!

The set list was laid out extremely well; they kicked off with ‘Pioneer to the Falls‘, a great opener after which they worked they’re way through some of the other great tunes of their 3rd Album, Our Love to Admire, with ‘Wrecking Ball’, ‘The Scale’, ‘Rest My Chemistry’, ‘Mammoth’, ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’, ‘All Fired Up‘ and the latest single, ‘No I In Threesome’ all in there. The audience received the new comers with open ears and sang along in gigging harmony.

Personally, I think Interpol was probably one of the best sounding live bands I’ve ever listened to, Paul Banks (Lead Vocals, Guitar) and Daniel Kessler (Guitar, Vocals) sang every song exactly as they were recorded on disc and it sounded pretty fucking amazing! The set was quite long, but no-one complained and everyone seemed to be having a really good time. The palace was packed, but it wasn’t uncomfortably full, you could easily access the bars and lavatories without missing too much of the music. The band let loose and started belting out the numbers that help them reach their respected stardom, amongst these heavy weights we heard ‘Evil’ , ‘Narc’ , ‘C-mere’ , ‘Slow Hands’ and my favorite still, ‘Obstacle 1‘. It was an all round solid performance, new, old, fresh and established, it had everything it needed and lacked everything it didn’t!

Ally Pally doesn’t seem to hit the spot for some people, but I digested the evening rather well, the sound was equally distributed and well balanced, even though it lacked a tiny bit of base around the outsides for that full affect. I’d say Ally Pally came in at 8/10 for sound and the band 9/10 on deliverance, they were outstanding and I would definitely see them live again if ever granted another chance. The fact that they didn’t talk much bullshit between songs made it even better; they’re musicians and they concentrate on the music.

2P
Photo taken from www.andrewkendall.com

Le Ferralleur, Nantes
23.11.07

Tonight’s gig is at a neat venue in renovated buildings on the old Nantes quayside, and is billed as ‘Punk Rock vs. Electro’ with two bands and a bunch of DJ’s spinning a mix of hip hop, drum and bass and break beats… complete with video projections.

After some action from the turntables, first band on is Nevrotic Explosion from Rennes, a five piece who take a few songs to settle in, but hammer out a decent set of Rise Against influenced melodicore with big and hoary Sick Of it All styled choruses. Not bad at all…

More DJ’s, including an amusing session from a guy that lays down his jams to some visuals from the film Psycho and live footage of Alice Cooper, and it works!

Both bands are playing two sets, and Burning Heads are up next for the first of theirs. What’s to say about Burning Heads… since the early Nineties these guys from Orleans have been the guiding lights of the French punk scene, relentlessly touring nationally and internationally, releasing nine albums (including two on Epitaph) plus numerous splits, and carving out a whole network of venues in France and constantly supporting homegrown bands.

This set is of “slow stuff” with a bulk of material from their new release “Opposite2” and its predecessor (from 2001) “Opposite” where they indulge in their love of Reggae/Dub/Scratching and generally taking things down a notch or two, to great effect I might add, and proving you don’t have to play at a 100miles an hour to get over powerful music. The bass sound particularly from JYB is super heavy, and adds extra weight to the likes of “Comrad” “Synaptic Warfare” and the excellent “The River” which hadn’t stuck out on the CD until hearing them ramp-it-up live.

More DJ’s and cold Kronenburg’s… then Nevrotic Explosion return, crowd are more charged and so are the band, much more energised set, including a solid reprise of “What’s My Name” by The Clash… back in the stoneage that song on a treasured compilation tape a school mate did me, and whenever I hear it I expect it to be followed by “Monochrome Set” by the Monochrome Set. Fuckin’ weird what the brain retains isn’t it…

Really good set from (I think) DJ Le Clown that has punters and the Burning crew all out on the dance floor… and the BH guys then climb on to the stage and plug in for a solid 60minutes of their trademark melodic SoCal inspired skatecore and tracks than encompass their lengthy back catalogue, notably the “One With the Flames” “Escape” “Taranto” albums and last years “Bad Time for Human Kind”.

There’s even a juiced up “Fuck You (fuck you) One and All” from ’96’s “Super Modern World” and the ace “Reaction” from ’94’s “Dive”. They are such a tight unit, and the songs pump out seamlessly. To close there’s a blistering rendition of the mighty Adolescents anthem “No Way” that prompts a mini stage invasion and mass sing-a-longs…. killer.

Pete Craven

Joe Lally
Capillary Action
Valley Arena

Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, California
07.11.07

It is safe to say that when the night started I had no idea what it would unveil. As I walked into Alex’s Bar I am greeted by my friend Vince who right away introduces me to Kira (bass player of Black Flag and Dos). We both exchange a, “nice to meet you”, and then I am turned around and told to come here.

Vince leans over and tells Mike Watt something and the next thing I know I am getting a hand shake that said to me hey brother! It is safe to say that my night started out very positive. By now the first band had started and I had no clue who was on the bill other then Dos and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally, then again did I need to know anything else?

First up was Long Beach locals and one of my favourite bands right now, the Valley Arena. These guys rock, they mix some of today’s dance/rock sound (without the cheese) and mix it with a sound reminiscent of Jawbox. They use intergraded guitar sounds with a lot of call and response, you would never though as their the songs are so well written. This turned out to be their record release show.

Up next came up…Capillary Action…I had never heard of these guys before and I found out why when they say they’re from Pennsylvania. Their style is in the vain of Frank Zappa and they do it well. Very odd time signature styles; change ups the way that Mr. Bungle does so well. These guys didn’t change my life but they were fun to watch and hear…One highlight was a great cover of The Stooges, “Fun House” with Mike Watt.

So next is Joe Lally. All that is on stage is a bass amp, keyboards and a very basic drum set. The first song starts with just him on bass and vocals; slowly a keyboardist and drummer join the foray. He plays a solid set with songs taken from his two solo records. Overall the set is around 40 minutes. As his performance progresses I notice that Kira was into it more than I was, really jazzed on watching him play. She is a bassist after all so I understand! For his last few songs the guitarist of Capillary Action joined, the first song was straight forward guitar whereas the rest were mostly noise and feed back, all consistent with the sound of his albums.

As the night progressed I had seen multiple styles of music and each band got mellower as it went along. Dos were the best choice to close out the show. They are very mellow being only two bass players and a majority of the set were instrumentals with some vocals thrown in by Kira.

You can really tell when friends are playing together, no matter what kind of music they play, hard, fast or mellow, they are having fun together. This was no different and I am glad I got to witness it.

CDM.