As a band who recently packed the (rather large) XFM tent at O2 Wireless, the Club Fandano at the Borderline could be considered a fairly small gig for Good Shoes. This is a band that has been around for ages, and now things seem to be coming good for the Morden-based four-piece set up.
So why they seemed to almost creep onto the stage this evening, and start without anyone really noticing, is beyond this writer.
However, after a fairly flat intro, the music kicked in, and so did the attention of the crowd.
The band started with almost a taster session, giving us a little snippet from ‘Never Meant to Hurt You’ before launching into ‘The Photo’s on my Wall’ - a vigorous taster of the energetic indie pop harmonies that propelled Good Shoes into their current state of popularity... and helped them sell out this gig.
After the following song, singer Rhys Jones introduced the band: “We are a band called Good Shoes from Morden”, he said. A quick introduction, and painfully unnecessary as everyone clearly knows, and loves this band.
As Jones rattled through the next few songs, ‘Sophia’ and ‘Ice Age’, it was hard to hear any difference between the live and album versions; the dulcet tones of Jones obviously needing very little technical wizardry. Like the vocals, the music remained exactly the same as the album equivalent. But, the band was relaxed on stage and the performance was tight.
Up until this point the crowd were fairly calm, there was a general feeling of frivolity, with people even (dare we say it…) dancing and moving - something which you can not help do with the feel-good twang of each Good Shoes number, but the mood was set to crank up a few notches.
The band strummed the instantly recognisable bars of ‘Blue Eyes’, the jangly guitars and rapid drums sent a frantic energy through the crowd, and this feeling only intensified. From here on in the band got their collective arse into gear and started playing all their really well known tunes.
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After ‘Small Town Girl’ came the full version of ‘Never Meant to Hurt You’; followed by most recent hit ‘Morden’, which is highly reminiscent of Larrikin Loves’ ‘Happy As Annie’ - with the upbeat tempo disguising the somewhat depressing nature of the song: “I read the news today/ A youth killed himself in a horrible way/ He hung himself from the local supermarket car park.”
Despite the dark subject matter, the happy go lucky feelings to the songs were soaked up by the audience, who evidently loved every minute - there was even a crowd surfer! Something we’ve not seen in these ‘ere parts in a long while…
Good Shoes ended somewhat predictably with ‘We Are Not The Same’ and ‘All In My Head’, both of which are, of course, excellent, and were well received by a delighted crowd.
As the gig came to an end it was clear that a good time was had by all. Good Shoes have an incredible talent for taking simple melodies and everyday lyrics and transforming them into energetic and bubbly songs.
Saying that, although it was an excellent gig, I could not help coming away feeling like the polished and crisp performance was just too, well, easy. The band gave a steady performance but it seemed to be missing a certain "je ne sais que".
However, despite my ridiculous pickiness, I couldn’t fault the performance – their songs were excellent and there is no doubt that their short 'n' sweet melodies were loved by all…including me!
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