Mike Frankel, aka Mike Title, frontman for DEAD KIDS and master provocateur, is making a valid point – if the majority of those attending gigs are increasingly representatives of the press – journalists, photographers, PR folk – who’s buying the tickets? Can a gig really take off at an organic progression – whether it ends up great or feeble - if people are not there to enjoy, be entertained and go with the flow, but instead to remain untouched, objective and critical? He asks and due to a lacklustre response, deduces that we are, indeed, all blaggers. But despite an initial nonplussed survey of the band by a scribbling and snapping crowd, it’s impossible to remain unfased for long, unless in a deep coma.
Dead Kids are comprised of prime cuts of music cattle. Their attitude and stamina may spell ‘young’ but they’ve been around - Frankel is former vocalist for in-yer-face rockers Sona Fariq. Guitarist and multi-talented Kieron Pepper has been drummer for The Prodigy for several years. Drummer Seb Thomson is of Trans Am, Weird War, Publicist and doubtless others. Jan on Keyboards – very little information on him, but it’s conceivable he’s landed straight out of the latest Swiss Eurovision entry. Adam No on some tremendous bass.
We are in The Macbeth, as part of the Shoreditch Stag & Dagger Festival, it’s around 10pm, and the Hoxtonites are drunkety-drunk-drunk. But even this festive stupor does not aid in stirring them from their apathy. The gig commences with some vigour, Frankel taking the stage in a helmet made entirely of sunglasses’ lenses. The effect is alien, as if his head is covered in scales. He’s holding a pocket calculator, promptly thrown to the crowd. Thomson’s got his giant gold chain necklace on, Adam looks damn fine in his hoodie and Jan is dressed in a white Olympic tracksuit top which accentuates his scando-blond locks. They’re a weird and disjointed bunch but the tightness, oh the tightness of their sound - it removes any misconception on a possible mismatch.
First track, Wires, is performed in a fury – it’s back to the 80s but a hardcore acid new-wave sound, sort of early Police with a funk twist. It’s a wired performance, and when Frankel is suddenly hanging off the precariously loose light fittings and a moment later he’s on the bar – he’s got everyone’s attention. For the first couple of songs, the crowd seems almost annoyed at his over-the-top efforts and cries of ‘let me have some love!’ but he is so into it himself, so utterly engrossed in his mission to shake all gig goers into a state of partying consciousness, that cooperation and enthusiasm eventually takes over. It’s simply an offer you cannot refuse.
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The gig continues with fantastic tracks – the anthemic I Like It, then fanning the flames with Dark Party which could have been written for an altogether different version of the Fame or Flashdance soundtrack, the single Fear and Fluoride released back in Nov 07, I Love America sung in French and darker in feel, and to finish off Into the Fire, for which the crowd is invited onto the stage and eagerly obliges. The lyrics are always biting, talk of hypocrisy, double standards, modern living and of course, having a good time.
Mike loves the crowd, he hates them, he antagonises them, he embraces them. You can expect to be snogged by him, have drinks chucked at you, dived on, serenaded, cursed beseeched and wooed. It’s manic performance but you will not want to miss a minute – like standing next to a crate of fireworks wrapped in nitro-glycerine – you know you should move away, but you can’t help but stick around for the big bang.
But even with the frontage of a madman on too many drugs, it’s all too clear that Frankel is in fact an intelligent man with heaps of talent and some poignant social messages, hidden in the mayhem. He’s surrounded by creative, fantastic musicians who share his vision and the only thing left to hope is that nothing stops them - including themselves - from bringing it out there.
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