Fog can be dangerous. Especially when driving. All the way to hull the fog was so thick visibility was “0”. Fortunately we found the venue and crept inside away from the elements.
The room was tiny, and visibility good, which was good or bad depending on the way you look at it. The venue, although not that old now, had definitely seen better days. Holes kicked in the wall, a bar that looked and felt like it had never been washed, my kinda place circa ’99. It was the sort of venue that if you went in with a blacklight from CSI, you really wouldn’t be surprised to see old smudges and previously cleaned up pools of blood. Also – the crowd were extremely young, I felt old until I saw a guy in his later thirties. That made me feel a bit better, although I think he left after the support.
First up were the support, “Popular Workshop”. Not only having the best band name I have heard in years they were pretty damn good. Three piece from London (the frontman was from some other country entirely). They played a fusion of noisy sonic youth-esque tunes, with basslines that would make Mani from the Stone Roses jealous. A sign of whether a band is any good is if you look at your watch or go to the bar during the set (this also applies to movies, but replace bar with popcorn counter). I was held captive by their bass player, jerking around – throwing all kinds of shapes and facial expressions, while he played the set with a cocky nonchalance. It was all very well rehearsed, a man who clearly spent his youth checking himself out in front of the mirror strutting along to nirvana.
I was so taken by the support I bought an EP at the merch stand and shook hands with the singer (mental note: get some business cards printed for such occasions). Which is OK, some of the better songs are not on it though, which was a slight disappointment.
Art Brut then. In a word, superb. Which is a strong word considering I used to hate them (I saw them at the Leeds Festival a few years ago, it converted me). Very tight, very very entertaining. The only band who I have seen where the frontman (Eddie Argos) mosh’s in their own moshpit. Their new guitarist “Jasper Future” was definitely a benefit to the tightness (far superior to the old and also stupidly named guitarist, Chris Chinchilla), although he did have a slightly annoying stage presence with his floppy blonde hair. He also did a really annoying thing which is kinda hard to explain, but I will try. During a song, if he took a break from playing he would crouch down to the crowd and outstretch his arm and point at the crowd with his mouth open. Another time he did the same, but instead of pointing, cupped a hand around his ear. Almost building anticipation before launching into his otherwise solid performance. The thing is, he did it with increasing regularity it looked like he had a strange tick or “mime tourettes”. It wasn’t enough to put me off, but it was distracting.
Another thing that was distracting was the guy stood next to me. Clearly wanting to be mistaken for a film student or arthouse director, sporting a beret, goatee and an auroa of self satisfaction he stood there all night without clapping or interacting with the band in any way. He was the kind of guy that really loves Buffy and thinks that Kevin Smith is the best director ever. Smug as fuck and nothing to show for his efforts of shitness.
So yeah, not really a review – more of strange observation. Both bands were good, very tight, played good songs (Art Brut only didn’t play one song I wanted to hear, so it could have been worse).
Err… that’s it.
In true arthouse fashion:
FIN.
No comments:
Post a Comment