Category: Music

King’s College, London
02.07.08

Before the magic that is Funeral For A Friend begins, I get to see something that is truly rare. A band that I’ve never seen or heard before that manages to impress in the live stakes without that prior connection. In Case of Fire have a very polished approach to the music they make which ends up sounding somewhere between a more straightforwardly rocking Muse and a much more disciplined Fall of Troy when they start to use effects etc. Vocalist Steven Robinson has one of those ethereal yet potently strong voices that can carry a melody with absolute assurity.

After the scene has been set the crowd waits anxiously for Funeral For A Friend. This is a band who I last saw five years ago in a supporting role at the 100 club. How far they have come – Top 5 albums, selling out Brixton Academy, winning countless awards. The list really does go on and on. But FFAF have not forgotten who they are or gotten carried away with re-inventing themselves as each new album comes around. The progression to this current moment when they are readying themselves to self-release their forthcoming album has been very natural and wholly unforced.

FFAF bust out all the golden oldies tonight – Juneau, This Years Most Open Heartbreak,10.45 Amsterdam Conversations, She Drove Me To Daytime TV… Matt Davies is the perfect ringleader, calling for audience singalongs where appropriate and jovially bounding around the stage, punctuating the music with jokey asides. New songs Beneath The Burning Tree and Waterfront Dance Club were received with equal glee by the overtly enthusiastic crowd and it’s clear that this band is ready to take it to yet another level.

Winegums.

Scala, London
02.07.08

A half-full Scala might not be the most appealing sight for a group to walk out to, but after hearing the DJ’s short intro set which featured Fam-Lay’s Da Beeper Song [made famous by Sinden’s reworking] and Fresh Prince’s Summertime, The Cool Kids walked out to a crowd ready for a party.

The Illinois duo, Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish, didn’t let the sparse crowd faze them, running through tracks from their upcoming Bake Sale EP including the brilliant One Two, 88, Little Bit Cooler before bringing out “one of your own” when Killa Kela headed onto the stage to add to the beat of I [Mikey] Rock and rocking Gold And A Pager over an M.I.A. beat.

The rappers’ interaction with the people in front of them was what helped make the night so good, with Inglish telling us all he wanted a party and got his DJ playing Snoop and Kriss Kross to the delight of everyone in attendance. He proceeded to ask who was the drunkest person in the venue before pulling the winner of the dubious accolade on stage and getting him to dance before granting his wish of playing Bassment Party.

The two worked well with each other too, most spectacularly when Mikey asked why Chuck hadn’t put his hand in the air when asking the crowd to. “I had a microphone in it” came the reply. “Well use the other one. You ugly, but you got two hands!”. “What if I had four hands yo?” was Chuck’s response. “Then,” said Mikey, walking away from him “You’d be a mutant. You fucking dick.”

So when the fun finally ended, after hearing Black Mags and Jinglin’ and Chuck said “We want you to go to your friends and say ‘Yo, you know those Cool Kids dudes? No? Well fuck you, they’re sweet'”, you knew you’d seen the beginning of something special.

Oh and to the hot nerdy dame dancing at the front near the stage, I should really have macked on you for a bit. Guess I’m just not cool enough.

Abjekt.

Kidz In The Hall

Koko, London / Thekla, Bristol
18.06.08 / 22.06.08

You know the deal, your favourite act doesn’t play in the UK for years and then they come over and you see them twice in a week. Fuck a bus, this is Atmosphere and holy moly, they brought a good time with them across the ocean. The Koko show saw a packed out venue in North London baying for more and their jaunt over to Bristol saw them perform on a boat for a tightly-squeezed 300 or so fans, seeing the Minnesotan acts for the first time their West Country home.

After Duck Down’s Kidz In The Hall had tried to whip up the crowd, leaving their only real good song Drivin’ Down The Block for last, Ant took to the stage, his trademark leather jacket and pony tail there for all to see, and slammed down the intro to Strictly Leakage’s That’s Not Beef, That’s Pork with Ali and Slug bounding out on stage and immediately getting the crowd slamming their fists in the air.

Both shows saw the group run through a brilliant mix-up of tracks, old and new, with both MCs knocking out Cats Van Bags to full effect early on. The first track from Atmosphere’s amazing new album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold was Puppets, with its perfect build up before Slug told the crowd “You know this song? Oh shit, well then you know what’s next!” as the beat thumped in.

The rappers work seemlessly together, feeding off each other’s energy and this was shown perfectly at the Bristol show when, after Guns And Cigarettes, Slug said he was “bigger than syphillis” and Ali said that should be the latest design for Atmosphere’s t-shirt range. “See,” said Ali “Stick with me son, I’m a genius, I’ll make you rich”.

Both shows brought their own gems, with London holding an impromptu karaoke of old Atmosphere songs after the crowd had cut Slug off in his prime for the chorus of Woman With The Tattooed Hands and Bristol gave us an encore of Your Glasshouse and a freestyle session.

Koko’s show was finished off with Always Coming Back Home To You and after the lights went up and people began filing out of the venue, we wish they’d be coming back soon!

Abjekt