Starting the night, Innercity Pirates get the show going with a quirky disco-punk blend. A good standard 3 piece setup with no surprises, till they start playing. The early bird crowd are wiggling like worms and bouncing to their tunes in no time at all. 'Lets Get Disco' has a fresh sound with twangy guitar licks and simple choruses. The bassist, Stephy J has fun jumping of her amp and works the crowd. Their set finishes with 'Ear Sex', hopefully a metaphor for music, or they're doing something seriously wrong...
Not ones to hang around, the 6-piece from Glasgow, Dananananakroyd get stuck in. Fuelled by double-drumming, mic-swinging and hug-giving, they give a performance with a exciting uncontrolled buzz. Not enough to run into the crowd at any opportunity hugging as many people as possible they manage to divide the crowd and create a wall of hugs down the room. Its hard to see how all six of them manage to fit on the small stage at once, but as I could never see all of them at once I can't say for sure.
Kicking myself about not knowing more of their songs and dancing too much to write notes, the details get a little sketchy! Friendly hardcore punk? How else do you describe the screaming smiley Scotsmen.
Fight Like Apes are near the end of their tour celebrating the release of their debut album cryptically titled 'and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion'. The four piece (MayKay - Vocals / Synths; Pockets Synths / Samples / Backing Vocals; Tom - Bass and Adrian Drums) look like they could all members of different bands put together by a kid at pic-n-mix.
May a sexy Robert Smith / the Cure
Pockets a long haired James Murphy / LCD Soundsystem
Tom Omar Rodriguez-Lopez / The Mars Volta
Adrian Tré Cool / Green Day
What a supergroup!
With no time for monkeying around or bad puns, to masses of cheers, Fight Like Apes come on stage then launch into 'Something Global'. This tirade against trend-setters and the music industry creating false images is a refreshing change from radio friendly mush. The passionate - borderline psychotic vocals can't be captured on record, its just a whole new experience having it screamed at you from 2 feet away. Not to be outdone, screaming the lyrics, whether they know them or not, everyone in the room goes into a frenzy. 'Digifucker' gets a slow synthy build-up till the chorus where I've never heard so many people scream "...and did you fuck her..." at once. Simple things...
'Tie Me Up with Jackets' quirky lyrics and the bass starts slowly and builds up into a exquisite mess. All summed up by the refrain "...lovely noise..." Then 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues' kicks in and any hope of rational thinking disappears. There's no way to stop getting pulled into a dancing trance when surrounded by a couple of hundred people all lost in their own worlds helped along by swelling synthesizers, funky basslines and kooky singing / screaming. What better way to spend a night than lost in a dream, waltzing away the hours to off-kilter pop.
Setlist:
Something Global
Do You Like Karate
Digifucker
Jake Summers
Lend Me Your Face
Can Head
Lumpy Dough
90210
Megameanie
Tie Me Up With Jackets
Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues
Snore Bore Whore
Knucklehead (skipped)
Battlestations
article by: Chris Mathews
photos by: Chris Mathews
published: 27/02/2009 17:02
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.