OCEANSIZE make a very grand and auspicious entrance to tonight's gig, trailing through the audience and climbing onto the stage out of their midst, like boxers entering the ring.
It's a kind of 'we're of you but greater than you' gesture and we're left in no doubt that we're here to admire and revere them. Again like boxers, they're clearly not afraid of a fight - never a possibility, in their minds at least, that they might go down in the first. After all, with a new single and album out and this, their first headlining tour, what do they have to be afraid of? Well, it may just be a tad unwise to take too much for granted.
Things start off slowly, they create a solid sound that swirls around you, thundering drums and effects laden guitars that struggle, initially at least, for a bit of coherence. Once settled, everything appears too well choreographed, as if they've left no room for chance or indeed excitement. Dynamics tend to rely on bursts of pretty bog-standard heavy riffing that take you by surprise the first couple of times but after which you kind of sense it coming.
Singer Mike Vennart can drive the band on, particularly when he allows himself to be sucked into the maelstrom they strive to
create, but at other times he merely croons along with an ever so slight pomposity and the whole thing teeters towards fussy prog rock. They're clearly striving for something great, trying to create something that is massive and everlasting but it feels as if they have too tight a hold on it - perhaps they should allow it a bit more space, ride it where it wants to go rather than attempting to tame it and show it off. I think of bands like Sonic Youth and Mogwai and their amazing ability to create music that is majestic and yet edgy, challenging and totally unpredictable.
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Then, just as I'm beginning to lose hope, they announce their new single, 'Heaven Alive' and launch into a darkly brooding, groove- surfing masterpiece. It's as if all their intention, ambition, pretension and creativity has collided in one song, sparks flying amongst swirls of wah wah'd guitar, vocals floating above the ensuing melee as greatness beckons with welcoming arms.
They cleverly follow this with 'No Tomorrow' managing not only to keep the flow moving but, with its staccato bursts -like machine gun fire - to take proceeding to an even higher plane. Of course, its impossible to maintain and the rest of the set takes a somewhat predictable dip.
But final song, a new one called, I think, 'Song For A Nurse' is yet another cracker that has got to offer great hope for the future, at least it suggests that Oceansize know where they need to be headed. At the end I watch the crowd - they've responded throughout barely more than politely - and no sooner have the last chords faded than they start to file out.
Despite Oceansize leaving the stage as they'd entered it, via the front, heads held high, the audience is fairly non-committal - not, I suspect, the victory Oceansize perhaps expected. As I say, you can never afford to take too much for granted.
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