Does It Offend You, Yeah? + South Central @ The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, 21/10/08

Some lazy journalists would refer to the current musical climate, at least in terms of British Indie-dance crossover groups, as “post-new-rave”. Ridiculous as this sounds, it is almost true to say that gone are the day-glo colours, garish sirens and hideous large-print shirts. Gone is the faux retro noise barely hiding the post-modern Franz-Ferdinand art-rock beneath, and gone too, thankfully, are the kids reminiscing about a decade they viewed from the glint in their fathers’ eyes.

Instead what is left are bands like South Central, pure tunesmiths who manage the dance-rock balancing act to a fault by being a duo by day in the studio and a band at night on stage. This distinction gives them the edge in terms of a live show over such artists as Simian Mobile Disco or even Justice, both of whom South Central almost match musically, but with much more energy than watching two guys push play on their drum machines. Instead they bring an infectious energy that quickly spreads throughout the crowd, especially during their extended cover of slightly more recent rave classic, Josh Wink’s “HHHhHigher State Of Consciousness”, which caps an impressive, if unfamiliar, set to a close.

Does It Offend You, Yeah?, the band literally named after David Brentism, hit the stage soon after, and long before the crowd has a chance to recover from South Central, and begin a short set based largely from their eponymous debut. Even with a set featuring singles “Let’s Make Out” and “We Are Rockstars”, it’s soon clear that the band, shrouded in smoke and with lead singer James sitting near the back with a crocked leg, aren’t as energetic as they would usually be, and seem somewhat jaded with touring and promotion already. The crowd is yet to sense this, however, and are vociferous as ever in their request for their favourite band to play their favourite song, screaming as one for “Epic Last Song” as a suitable, if not necessarily apt, encore. After a hurried apology about “not doing that one live”, they instead treat the crowd to a slightly drowsy version of Devo’s classic “Whip It”. While the irony isn’t lost on some of the crowd, its still good enough to bring the night to a close.

South Central are touring throughout the UK and Europe and release the Owl Of Minerva EP on November 3rd. DIOYY?'s tour continues until the 30th in Leeds and is their last tour before working on their second album

65Daysofstatic @ Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth 16/04/2008

Tonight's openers PILGRIMFATHERS are one of those uncomfortable "neo-prog" bands where the only "progressive" aspects are the heavily distorted vocals and the increasingly unkempt hairiness of the members as you moved from drummer through to vocalist. i.e. not very good.

http://www.myspace.com/thepilgrimfathers

GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP are a NY hardcore band who kick the gig screaming into life with their aggressively homoerotic odes to their thespianic hero. Sample lyric: "Cause I want my Johnny bleeding... fuck him in the ass." Lead singer Marty Leopard appears tonight dressed as a reverend, but soon strips down to his stars and stripes boxers, leaping into the crowd for every song. The rest of the band, either outstaged or embarassed, remain still for most of the set, which focusses upon their 25 minute debut LP "The Politics Of Cruelty".

http://www.myspace.com/gayforjohnnydepp

65DAYSOFSTATIC come on stage, and to be honest, I was expecting big things. I'd heard a number of people saying how great they were live, and having only got into them fairly recently, I was hoping my lack of knowledge of the songs wouldn't let me down.

Its very easy for a review to throw away words like "Epic" and "awe-inspiring" like the poster to a Bruckheimer movie or a Daily Mail review of U2's latest, but in this case I would say its greatly justified.

Debut single and arguably their biggest song "Retreat! Retreat!" is thrown away early into the set, almost as if the band want to dissociate themselves from The Fall Of Math and focus upon One Time For All Time and The Destruction Of Small Ideas.

65DOS's set tonight within the tiny Wedgewood Rooms is massively beyond these four walls. Instrumentally, the drummer is the only one you can hear consistently (most of the absolutely crazy drumbeats are actually him, occasionally assisted by a drum machine), and the guitars frequently descend into a whirlwind of noise and atmosphere, the bass occasionally popping its head up during some of the quieter more melodic parts.

I'm afraid I haven't really got much of an idea what else they played that night, but that shouldn't be a bad thing. This is post-rock. This is 3 minutes of noise followed by a minute of quiet followed by a drum break and then 3 minutes of noise.

This is pretty fucking epic.

http://www.myspace.com/11488230

Blood Red Shoes @ Wedgewood Rooms, Portmouth, 08/04/2008

It's somewhat hard to believe that a duo so elegant as Laura-Mary and Steven can make such a decent racket.

Their bassless antics maye be simple, but as demonstrated by tonight's opening act, AN EMERGENCY, can difficult to pull off well. AE's twin guitar sound takes a whistlestop tour of American bedroom Indie Rock, taking in Sonic Youth, Les Savy Fav and everything in between. But while the lack of a four-string is just about hidden by the noise, their myspace recordings sound sparse and messy without the bass keeping it all together.

http://www.myspace.com/anemergencyxxx

Jack and George of THESE NEW PURITANS step up, neglecting to mention where their other two band members are or why they aren't here. Instead, either as an homage to tonight's headliners or that the left the other two at a Service Station on the M3, its just the brothers Barnett with George taking up the slack, negotiating the drum machine, sampler and playing bass. Whatever reason for them just being a twosome, their glitchy post-punk makes tons more sense without the full band backing it up. Despite rumours of lead singer Jack's arrogance, they play a tight set with few problems; "Numbers (AKA Numerology)" and "Elviss" are obvious highlights.

http://www.myspace.com/thesenewpuritans

A short interlude later, and the duo head onto stage. Laura-Mary, telecaster in hand, and Steven, ready at the drums, tear into a set full of energy despite both being still as statues. Former single "It's Getting Boring By The Sea" is dropped early into the set as well as the majority of the tracks from the forthcoming (yet already leaked) debut album Box Of Secrets.

While an obvious criticism is the formulaic nature of many of the songs, pretty much all of them step up to the plate and just plain fucking rock. "I Wish That I Was Someone Better" has all the pop-hooks, but they've made old cliches new and full of life, with half the crowd screaming the self-deprecating chorus back at them.

What is interesting, is that despite Blood Red Shoes impressive Indie pedigree - having played well over 300 shows and bounced around independent labels for a good couple of years, but they are still relatively unknown and still appear to be having good fun at what they are doing. Steven jokes with the crowd and Laura-Mary demurely grins into the microphone, occasionally shuffling closer to the crowd, eager to enjoy their well-deserved praise.

Past the 40 minute mark, however, patience is wearing thin. The songs begin to melt into one another, and while those at the front are still as enthralled as ever, the rest of the crowd are not quite as interested anymore. Just how far Blood Red Shoes can take their brand of noise remains to be seen - their album Box Of Secrets is to be released on Monday - but tonight they dissapear offstage for mere seconds before an encore that ends with the explosive "ADHD".

Their music may be simple, lyrics perhaps contrived, but it is anything but Indie-by-numbers, and thats whats important.

British Sea Power @ Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, 21/01/2008

Initial support band John and Jehn, wandering onto stage looking like a couple of Dickensian Opium fiends, seemed, if anything, a little bored with the proceedings. Calling them "Bohemian" would neither cover the classical dress sense nor their "We are from London, but we hate London" attitude. Instead it appears that they are actually a couple of post-modern French existentialists out for a good time. The kids today, eh?

For most of the time, John plays guitar and programs the drum machine, while Jehn plays keyboards and occasionally plays bass on tracks such as "Make Your Mum Proud". It is one of those occasions where you aren't sure what's missing until its there. As soon as Jehn picks up her bass, they seem to find their groove for their last two tracks. But it seems to be a bit too late for this set, at least.

Myspace

Make Model, I have to admit, I was not exactly looking forward to. After seeing them play a fairly boring set at the muddy inaugural Connect Festival in Scotland, I wasn't expecting anything fantastic. However, either they have improved or I have become less immune to their particular take on twee Scottish Indie-Pop. Playing their first gig in Portsmouth, the EMI-backed sixtet played some songs I recognised alongside some newer tracks such as latest single "The Was", presumably for their forthcoming album, probably out this time next year.

While they never really break any new ground, they are fairly pleasant exponents of the twee-pop genre, yet in a more similar vein to Belle and Sebastian than their welsh contemporaries Los Campesinos.

Myspace
Official Site

No foliage and less frolics, this new-look and slightly more serious British Sea Power tore through their set which borrowed heavily from their latest album, Do You Like Rock Music?

Walking on stage to opener "All In It", BSP regulars Yan, Hamilton and Noble began "Lights Out For Darker Skies" alongside their replacement drummer Tom White of the Electric Soft Parade and Brakes, as usual stickman Wood (far left, on picture above) is out injured. Also included are the touring viola player Abi Fry (who also tours with Bat For Lashes) and one man Horn section Phil Sumner.

An early set highlight is "Canvey Island", which is swiftly followed by older song "Remember Me". Soon Hamilton takes over vocal duties for new album track "Down On The Ground" as well as "How Ever Will I Find My Way Home?" from their 2005 LP Open Season.

While White is an able and competent drummer, the chemistry is missing and Wood is definitely noticeable by his absence on some tracks. However, the rest of the band are on good form and play on to a slightly more mature, and increasing indifferent crowd. While the front few rows are still vying for space with their elbows, equally to BSP classics such as "Fear of Drowning" and most recent single "Waving Flags", further back, Make Model may as well still be on stage for all anyone else seems to notice.

While even the front few stop moving around during instrumental track "The Great Skua", the pace is picked up with another Open Season track "Please Stand Up". Later, after live favourite "The Spirit of St. Louis", guitarist Noble climbs aboard the PA system, and stays there for almost the entirety of main set closer "True Adventures".

The encore includes next single "No Lucifer" and Decline Of... track "Carrion, followed by the traditional semi-improvised "Rock In C", following the tradition of trashing the stage and Noble getting up on Hamilton's shoulders.

Even though their latest has been their best charting album (at number 10 this week), and the band probably put little less than a foot wrong tonight, from the crowd's reaction it seems, unfortunately and unjustly so, that they aren't as relevant as the rest of the Indie tripe. A critically acclaimed band with a small but hardcore following they remain.

Myspace
Official Site

Foals, 27/11/2007 @ Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

The Followills have captured so ne'er do well new-rave refugee with a telecaster wandering around in the desert. At least that was my first impression of the band first on tonight, Kentucky 5-piece Cage the Elephant. Based around Schultz brothers Matt (vocalist) and Brad (Rhytm Guitar and wearer of all things red), their resemblance to the Kings Of Leon plus one is uncanny.

Although initially the influences seem to be rather obvious classic rock during opener "In One Ear", they begin to live up to their appearance during their second song "Soil To The Sun", which could easily have been a hijacked KoL B-side. However, the band really come into their own during "No Rest For The Wicked", Despite this being another heavily derivative track (this time sounding like Red Hot Chili Peppers before they got a bit rubbish), the bands musical, if not their creative, skills shine through.

Obviously still excited after supporting Queens of The Stone Age stateside and set to tour with The View and The Wombats shortly, they are a band to watch for the future.

http://www.myspace.com/cagetheelephant

The next band to face the cynical nodding and the sceptically folded arms were hotly tipped New Zealanders Cut Off Your Hands, althought they arguably received a better reception, even despite lead singer, Nick's belief that "no one in here wants to party" along with his inclination to leap into a crowd of despairingly indifferent fans and climb onto speakers that are already nearly touching the ceiling.

Although they got better as the set went on and as Nick decided to calmed down a bit, their jangly powerpop soon gets boring as each song is as formulaic as the last. Their best, or at least most memorable song was a cover by The Sonics. Whose name I forget.

http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands

Not long after Foals came on, ditching the formerly infamous Gwen Stefani introduction that they used to perform, and, after Yannis broke a string that was hastily replaced by some helpful members of Cut Off Your Hands, they soon made up for this with a host of songs, old and new, that seem set to feature on their debut album.

Unfortunately for them however, theirs and tonight's two biggest songs, the amazing "Hummer" and equally danceable "Matheletics", are apparently not set to feature on their LP by their own choosing. A risky move perhaps, but with every indiephile worth his salt surely already to be found with these mp3s on their computer already, they appear to be banking on the strength of their other material, which tonight doesn't fail to impress, with highlights including "Cassius" and "Oxford Step".

In fact, the band seem to be going from strength to strength and gaining in confidence, with Yannis finally getting a voice when he needs to (although still singing with his back to half the crowd, perhaps for technical issues), and the band actually looking slightly less serious and slightly more like they were enjoying themselves.

While this particularly brand of Indie-dance isn't quite to everyone's taste, and it certainly seems as if they will not be the next band to make it big in the pop charts, they and their scenester fanbase wouldn't have it any other way.

Good, if not overwhelming, their debut album (minus "Hummer" and "Mathletics") looks set to be released via Transgressive In March next year.

http://www.myspace.com/foals