This gig felt like a good way to end a day that was mainly spent at the Bhaktivedanta Manor temple that George Harrison built for the Hari Krishna movement where I was at a wedding, so having had a quite spiritual day it felt right to spend the evening with some legendary indie musicians, making a racket in a salubrious basement at a gig put on by Tony Fraser at Complete Control.
First on was Jennifer Denitto who it appears I've seen playing a couple of times before, back when she played drums for Linus when they opened for the Voodoo Queens and also drumming for Bid's quite wonderfully bizarre Scarlet's Well at the Luminaire, at another gig promoted by Tony Fraser.
Strangely Jennifer was replaced in Linus by the last opening act I saw at the Hope & Anchor Charley Stone and I have to say of the two of them I would rather see Charley again. For this show Jennifer was performing solo on guitar and drum machine and from the opening My Favorite Narcissist played a set of shambling indie with wry lyrics and rather ham-fisted guitar playing.
The song that stuck out for me was about Other London Girls that could almost have worked as a re-gendering of the classic London Boys (Either Bowie or The Heartbreakers) and had some very funny lyrics.
I think it was 5 More years that was introduced as being an old Linus song and was far better lyrically than the stop start guitar playing. Where's Billy Zoom was a good sideways tribute to dear old Billy.
The best lyrics of the set were on Workplace Lactation a wonderfully laconic look at what it's like to be playing sessions at the BBC while lactating and it's certainly one of the only songs I can remember about breast feeding. She closed with Hey JT that I hope was a tribute to Mr Thunders but doubt that it was.
Next on were the duo Panic Pocket who are Sophie Peacock and Natalie Healey who from the opener Don't Get Me Started had good harmony vocals and a great sense of humor and in terms of current female duo's seem to be somewhere between Wet Leg and The Soap Girls but obviously with far less gratuitous nudity than the Soap Girls and vocally reminded me a good bit of The Accidentals.
You're the Boy, or whatever the second song was, had enough cheek in the lyrics to let him know just what a let-down he was. The song that had them Crawl Out Of all sorts of scrapes with men who needed to learn how to behave better, was very funny and the basic synth playing worked a treat to make us all smile.
I really liked the song about there Right To Be Pretty, let's face it why shouldn't they have that right, this is very up to date and at the same times had echoes of Two Nice Girls. You Never Say Your Sorry had a litany of faults that the poor sod it's about should apologize for, while groveling before there magnificence.
They made sure we knew they were Doing It My Way and not just following the crowd before they finished with the bands best known song Mr Big that yes is in tribute or in fact more of a demolition of Sex & The City's Mr Big as they list all the ways in which he should be a figure of fun rather than a figure of lust. Panic Pocket are loads of fun and need to be seen live.
Then it was time for very much non-corporate Indie super group Swansea Sound who for the uninitiated feature Hue Williams and Amelia Fletcher from The Pooh Sticks, Rob Pursey from Heavenly and Ian Button from Death In Vegas and joined Live by latest recruit Robert Rotifer from The Night Mail.
They opened the set with the opening song from the band's debut album Live At The Rum Puncheon the brilliantly sardonic Rock N Roll Void that sounded pretty close to how it does on the album as did most of the songs in the set. Amelia was vigorously shaking her tambourine like a washing machine on I Sold My Soul On Ebay that also had some very cool guitar from Robert.
|
They were having lots of fun and cheeky comments between songs with Hue singling out the guy right at the front who was standing with Crossed arms as if somehow, he was fed up at seeing them, so Hue made sure he knew that It's Ok When You're Around as they got properly bouncy propelled along by Rob's bassline and Ian's almost metronomic drumming.
There was much fun made of the fact that Rob had decided that someone needed to write a tribute song about The Pooh Sticks and then got two members of said band to play on the wonderfully wry tribute to themselves.
Let It Happen saw Amelia switch from tambourine and backing vocals to Organ and backing vocals as they marvel at how the modern world gets all sorts of stuff wrong. Before they take us on a trip to the Rose parade in Pasedena that featured some wonderful melodica from Amelia that seemed to weave in and out of what Robert was doing on the guitar.
Indies Of The World was played like the hit single it should have been, as it was full of passion for the bands and labels that just go and do it for the right reasons without selling out.
Amelia was back on the Organ for Freedom Of Speech during which Hue repeatedly threatened to hang The DJ which would have been unfortunate as he played some corking indie sounds between the bands.
Angry Girl was as bitter and twisted as it should be for the raw deal many girls get in the music bizz and life in general and despite what it said on Amelias t-shirt there was nothing twee about the riotous fun they were having.
There was a good bit of mocking of Hue before they played Swansea Sound when he claimed that none of the band came from Wales, well apart from Hue of course and they had a good few of us singing along to the chorus on this super catchy tribute to the Welsh radio station in question and a song I've had stuck on repeat in my head since the gig. It was also the only song of the set that Amelia played both Melodica and organ on.
Je Ne Sais Quoi allowed them to get properly European and made us all long for the days when a trip to Europe was a very easy thing to do, as Hue longed for that woman with the special something he can't quite put his finger on.
They closed the set with the bands T-shirt song Corporate Indie Band a song that skewers the very notion of remaining an indie band once you are signed to a major label and have the support that should imply, along with endorsements of your favorite brands, something this lot would never do in real life. This was a cool way to close a great fun set and should they tour anywhere near you then they are well worth seeing.
|
