The Foxes / The Turns / The Vehicles / The Carpels @ The Rainbow, The Thursday, The 12th of The March, The 2009

Yes, yes, yes...lots of bands with 'The' in their names. Of course no one can beat the very great The The (ask your grandparents pop kids)...whatever happened to them eh? First up The Carpels. I've jested more than once that I'm sooooo old now I have boxer shorts with more years under their belt (as it were) than some of the bands I go to see. Often it's for pure comedy value. Tonight though it was probably true. That says much about my wardrobe...in particular my underwear department. Happily The Carpels were anything but pants, fusing a Foals-ish feel with a little bit of that old Buzzcocks spark. Math Punk anyone? It brings much joy to my aging heart that more bands are now being influenced by the some of the artier, edgier groups of the last few years. I've nothing against straight up Oasis flavoured rock (well...I have, but let's leave that debate for another day), but what any avid music fan craves is VARIETY. Delivering just that The Carpels are already a good band, punching way above their weight lyrically and musically. Ones to watch.

Second on the bill, The Vehicles, have played The Rainbow a fair few times. Once again they delivered a solid New Wavey set, the highlights of which being Bright Young Things and The Best Things Come to Those Who Wait - both of which are available right now on their MySpace pagey. Third up, The Turn, had a touch of The Verve about them. Lead Turn Carl's got a good rock voice, well suited to the material and the rest of the band provided the perfect backing, tight but capable of rocking out when duty called.

The highlight of the night for me though was The Foxes. I've been semi-following them for a couple of years now. I bought their original Lover Killer EP (now fetching £500 on ebay...well it might be soon...) and was impressed when they all jacked in their day jobs to follow their dream, setting up their own label along the way. That was waaaaaay back in 2006. How time flies. Now I've jacked in my day job (well, it's been jacked in for me) and The Foxes have made the hallowed pages of NME. What's more they're about to release a new single penned in tribute to the master of mirth himself Mr Bill 'theworldisfullofcocksuckingwhores' Hicks (RIP). There's something very British about The Foxes, a 60's twang to the music that has echoes of The Kinks at their punkiest or even early Beatles. It's just a twang, but it's there. The venue wasn't full but the band put their all into it (the lead Fox's vocal seemed stronger too), just as they have done every single time I've seen them and they've now got a set full of instantly loveable hits. Aside from the music (which is great) I respect the whole ethos of the band. They're putting in the thousands of miles and hours (working as a covers band to help fund the whole shebang), slogging all over the world and now (fingers crossed) it's starting to pay off. It's a real shame that there ain't no mainstream music show no more...you can just see The Foxes on TOTP. That's the kind of big lift that they really need/deserve. But, who knows? With the Bill Hicks single buzz building they may yet 'out fox' the music biz altogether...