The Hoosiers

As they embark upon their latest tour one can't help but ask why The Hoosiers chose Grimsby to kick it off with. While renowned for its fish industry and large crime figures (being a local myself that's certainly all I seem to notice) it's an often neglected spot for larger name bands.

As such, while the venue was not quite sold out (though I put that down to marketing personally) punters showed up in full stead ready for a party, a dance and a snigger at each other's fancy dress costumes. Since the ticket called upon people to dress up as what you wanted to be when you grew up the aspirations of some of these people were characteristically cartoon-esque and hilarious. While I never wished I would grow up to be Scooby Doo, Zorro or a schoolgirl these costumes were a huge testament to the crowd's personality which brilliantly reflected that of The Hoosiers and their music.

So the entrance call was made and the few people still hanging around in the foyer quickly made their way to floor, myself included. The entrance music was atmospheric, riling and lengthy, which is always a clever move. Lights flashed and glided every which way and behind the curtain the word 'Hoosiers' were lit up by mysterious roadies behind. My ears were receiving a severe battering by this point from the wall of high pitched screams and enthusiastic wails. Grimsby had put down its crowbars, cod fillets and ASBOs momentarily as they were well and truly ready to rock.



The curtain fell, the band played, the screams far from dissipated and arses went up, then down repeatedly (and in unison, of course) all across the room. Lead singer and guitarist, Irwin Sparks had taken a leaf straight from Matt Bellamy's book with his look and indeed stage presence. They were all firmly locked into their positions with vigour while the impressive lightshow took centre stage inducing migraines and blinding the rest. The music was dynamically good and well written pop music, the brass refrain being a massive highlight of this particular song. Antics already began at this early stage with a tambourine shaking robot (who was later seen playing the trumpet in the aforementioned refrain) and every member of the audience clapping along as persuaded by Sparks (which was seen in more than every other song of the evening).

The band remained tight throughout the entire evening and generally played excellently. While I have to take a step back for a moment and admit that I've always had a certain amount of animosity towards The Hoosiers they impressed me with almost all aspects of their performance (taking musicality out of the equation for a second). This is why I found it to be a huge shame that the crowd who were meant to be their fans showed a lack of, for want of a better word, patriotism towards this band. It was clear that the majority of the people there came to hear the singles and as such a lot of the in-between numbers (especially the exclusive two new songs that were debuted that evening) were pockmarked with people rushing out for cigarettes so they could be back in time for 'Goodbye Mr. A'.



Another highlight appreciated more by the elder fans in attendance was a cover of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire' which went down better than some of the other slower songs of the evening, although I suspect that this is because it directly followed Sparks telling the crowd how beautiful they are. Butter 'em up with candy, eh? This boy certainly knows how to get the crowd on his side.

So, for a band so hit-orientated I have to take a couple of seconds to talk about the singles. The first of the night was their shall we say 'tribute', for the moment, to The Cure's 'Lovecats', 'Cops and Robbers'. This was met by the loudest wolf whistles up to this point in the set (which of course is to be expected). When Sparks asked the crowd, "Grimsby are you with me?!" our representatives squealed back incomprehensibly like only us Grimbarians can which was nicely followed by that classic form of audience participation in the form of "When I say cops, you say robbers!" which the crowd happily obliged.

Next up in line for the singles was (and I won't mask my words on this one since they couldn't have made it any more obvious) 'Happy Together' rip-off, 'Worried About Ray' which ended the show before their encore. Yet again, the crowd rabidly flicked of spots of fan boy froth from their mandibles as they launched into this one. The same can be said for 'Goodbye Mr. A', which appears to be the only reason why 50% of the crowd came tonight (which is why the band cleverly left it until the very end of their set).



Overall, The Hoosiers played an absolutely stellar set for people who like this kind of music. Even I, who readily admits to finding them actually rather annoying, enjoyed the gig and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their playing. Unfortunately I feel many of the people who came simply for the singles were disappointed but that's their loss for having such a disposable attitude towards music and what matters is that the clearly bigger Hoosier fans had what can only be described as a fantastic night.

FUTURE GIGS