Category: Music

London Garage
18.07.06

The Garage is renowned for being something of a sweat-box, but never more so than for a sold-out show on such a hot day as today; with the temperature inside this small north London venue resembling that of a sauna. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that most of tonight’s action takes place on the well-ventilated stage, whilst the majority of the audience sink into a heat-induced stupor.

Except, that is, for a young man who dances like a deranged grasshopper for the duration of The Scare’s set. He clearly knows a good band when he sees one; in this case, an Australian quintet that resemble the 80’s Matchbox B-Line Disaster if they’d derived inspiration from Gang Of Four records and bad speed comedowns. After half an hour of exhilarating art-funk mayhem, they exit abruptly, leaving us feeling that support slots like these will soon be very much beneath them.

Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies’ swirling, expansive sound certainly suits the increasingly soporific conditions. Like The Scare, they’re largely unknown to the crowd, but have a few devoted fans down at the front. A half-hour set is far too short for a band of their ilk, but the intricacy and atmosphere of songs like ‘Archive It Everywhere’ mark them out as ones to watch.

Forward Russia bound onstage in their trademark matching t-shirts, and get the funk-punk disco party started. Singer Tom is his usual hyperactive self, howling into the faces of the front row as his band’s taut rhythms and scratchy guitars whip the crowd into action. The band recently released a stunner of a debut album in ‘Give Me A Wall’, and the bizarrely-titled likes of ‘Thirteen‘ and, er, ‘Fifteen‘ sound even more impressive in the live setting, demanding that you get up and dance.

Alas, by now, the conditions in the venue have become unbearable, to the extent that many people leave before Forward Russia’s set ends. It seems that the venue’s shortcomings have hindered what should have been a storming show by one of the UK’s most promising bands.

Alex Gosman

Sleepy Jackson
Somerset House
16.07.06

Last time I went to Somerset House I spent most of the time falling on my butt on a vast lake of ice. Fast forward a few months and the cold has been replaced by a heat wave, hundreds of people sprawled on the ground, soaking up the last of a hot Sunday’s sunshine, and in some cases recovering from the night before…

Australia’s Sleepy Jackson cruise onto stage as support, their brand of spaced out, zorbic rock the perfect entrée for The Lemonheads. In Luke Steele the band have a charismatic and notoriously tricky frontman (the list of ex band members is ever growing), who charms the crowd, and keeps our attention for the entire set. At time they sounds like The Arcade Fire, at times Flaming Lips, it’s a colourful, bright set, slipping into instrumentals and sudden flickers of harder rock. With their second album ‘Personality‘ set to drop, you get the impression these guys are only just getting up to full power, watch this space.

Bang on time Evan Dando comes loping out onto the stage, a wry grin plastered on his face, a stripey top on his beanpole frame and his trademark blonde hair unfairly shiney as ever. Despite the fact their best known album ‘It’s a Shame About Ray’ is almost 13 years old now, there’s a good turn out for Dando, and the words are still engrained in us. ‘Ruddlerless‘ and ‘Big Gay Heart’ are sung back word perfect, ‘Confetti‘ touches home and ‘Drug Buddy’ is bittersweet. To be standing in such a stunning setting, under the stars, watching Dando seduce the audience with his boyish charm, is a treat indeed. We’re further spoilt with a solo section, Dando’s persuasive vocals seeing us through ‘The Outdoor Type’, ‘Why Do You Do It to Yourself’, ‘Being Around’ and Mike Nesbitt’s ‘Different Drum’. He even has the nerve do drop a Misfits cover of “Skulls“!

Having signed with Vagrant, The Lemonheads have finished recording their first album since 1996 at Allaire Studios, NY, and we’re presented with a new track from the forthcoming album – ‘No Backbone’, it’s rockier, upbeat but still retains that wistful charm we’ve grown to love.

It’s a new start for Dando, he appears to have conquered his demons and come back stronger than ever.

As the balmy summer evening comes to an end, he hands out what he claims is his work permit to the front row, and jumps on his guitar which doesn’t play the game ‘ I thought it’d make a cool sound!’ he shrugs bashfully.”What a special evening…although we’ll be over here so many times in the next few months, and not one of you will come to see us.” Judging from the crowd’s reaction tonight, he underestimates just how loyal his fans are. Modest as ever, he sidles off stage – here’s hoping he returns very soon indeed.

Dee Massey

Evan Dando’s official website www.evandando.com

BAR ACADEMY, ISLINGTON
13.07.06

If only one sad fact springs to mind upon entering the dingy surroundings of the Bar Academy this evening, it’s that Vanity Fair is no longer a mere magazine title. There’s barely a hair out of place or a cigarette in flame but there’s no end of hot air, something made painfully clear as one wafer thin punter declares triumphantly that he no longer requires clothes any larger than a youth size large. You heard it here first – anorexia is definitely in this summer.

Clambering onstage in a pair of scandalously tiny shorts that wouldn’t appear out of place in a 1980’s P.E. lesson at Grange Hill, Bring Me The Horizon front man Ollie Sykes is to say the least an unlikely ringleader for such occasions. Underpant linings aside, he’ll spend much of tonight’s horrendously short set surfing the barrier and swinging from the ceiling like an electrified monkey, bellowing out the likes of the brilliantly titled ‘Rawwwrr!’ until his eyes bulge. Between songs he cuts a much more chilled out and at times almost charming figure, cracking jokes and apologising in vain for his striking choice of attire; but it’s the final stages of send-off cut ‘Re: They Have No Reflection’ which provide arguably the biggest rib-tickling of the night.

Splitting the crowd in two as his band prepare to thunder into the track’s devastating closing breakdown, Sykes places his foot upon the monitors and prepares to usher in the countdown to chaos. “Who here knows what a ho-down is?” he asks, grinning as his band mates shuffle around the stage and produce a 1950’s rock and roll ditty that reduces the venue to a cauldron of laughter and bemusement. Seconds later it’s business as usual, the moment of brutality arriving with such ferocity that one fan is catapulted towards the stage with bullish force; his flailing limbs clattering the lighting rig before landing in a heap on the stage.

Whether Bring Me The Horizon have what it takes to outlast a dying scene in which they’re evidently so revered remains to be seen, but tonight they’ve produced more than enough reason the keep the fringe from your eyes.

Ryan Bird.