Ahhhhhh springtime, dontcha just love it? Longer
days, buds on the trees, daffs springing up everywhere, the sudden reappearance
of our old friend Mr Sun...except someone, somewhere seems to have failed to
read the script this year as the temperature allegedly plummeted to a nut
shrivelling -10 today (with wind chill). Good grief. Happily tonight’s compact
and subterranean venue rapidly achieved a slightly more tropical feel courtesy
of This Is Sinister. They’ve been knocking around for a few years now and what
was once an odd mix in their early gigs seems to have gelled remarkably well. Psych,
prog, country, rock, beat...no genre’s immune but somehow they make it work.
Musical trainspotters might make links to Pearl Jam and At The Drive In in
places but this lot are frankly impossible to pigeonhole and there aren’t too
many bands you can say that about these days. Pick of the set included Idle
Pleasures and the country rock tinged Never Find A Way, complete with added
harmonica, neither of which I can find online anywhere so you’ll just have to
go and see ‘em instead. Oh, and ask them to do tonight’s closing number too, a
spirited and pant wettingly enjoyable version of Twist and Shout that might
just be one of the greatest covers of all time...
Time then for battle of the front men, with London
boys Scholars sending their dude up first. The Sunflower Lounge is a little
like an adventure playground with stuff to jump off, climb up, stand on, lean
over...and Mr Scholars was all over it, leaving the stage after the very first
note and spending most of the show in amongst the crowd. You have to admire
bands who really make an effort and one glance at Scholars’ You Tube account
(172 videos so far and counting) plus their extensive range of merch shows you
just how serious they’re taking their one shot at fame and fortune. Happily they
put just as much effort into their performance, delivering one anthemic rocker
after another. There’s a decent blob of punk spunk in there too with both Bad
For Business and Damages (off forthcoming album Always Lead, Never Follow produced
by Hundred Reasons’ guitarist Larry Hibbitt) coming across like The Hives getting
it on with Rocket From The Crypt...in a sex dungeon.
It’s new single Black and
Blue, with its vocal gymnastics and quiet / loud / slow / fast bits that most
make Scholars well worth studying though and if record sales had anything to do
with energy tonight it’d sell a million.
A year or so into their existence Layers are shaping
up nicely thanks in no small part to lead vocalist Lance’s ability to bring a little
more soul to the traditional rock set up. Oh yeah...he’s a human dynamo too,
that might have something to do with it. Sensing that he needed to up the
stakes if he was going to top Scholars’ main man he took an even more physical
approach to performance, culminating with an audacious / suicidal set closing backflip
and crowd drenching courtesy of a bottle of mineral water and just the odd drop
or two of sweat. In between they played a short but nuclear powered set peaking
with last year’s statement of intent, Corners. It’s a freakin' great rock song, neatly
tapping into the full range of human emotion in just three minutes, fear, regret,
anger...throat shredding insanity...and Lance made the most of it leaping about
like his feet were on fire (maybe they were...I wouldn't be at all surprised). Impressive. It was all over far too soon though but,
as the old saying goes, always leave ‘em wanting more eh? Appropriately enough the
slightly more reflective (only slightly more...it still rocked like a mutha) closing
number Gradually was dedicated by Lance to tonight’s promoter, the lovely Rhi
Lee, who’s sadly been seduced by the glamour of Laaahnden. Cor blimey...apples
and pears...you’re ‘avin a larf...leave it Phil/Grant he/she’s not werf it etc
etc. Rhi’s been an invaluable supporter of the local music scene here in
Birmingham for a while now, putting on some amazing gigs as well doing her
thang at The Flapper and The Institute. She’ll be sorely missed. What a 'Rhi Lee' (sorry, couldn't resist it) great night to end on though.
No comments:
Post a Comment