The first disappointment of the night came immediately on arrival when I discovered that The Haxan Cloak, who were scheduled to play as main support on Wild Palms' tour had been dropped from tonight's bill, for reasons unknown. Pity, as I'd been looking forward to checking this act out.
Still, that disappointment soon diminished when Alvin Purple, who I've seen a couple of times previously, took the stage. Opening with 'The Look', dominated by a robust and stupendously fat, funky bass, I was immediately reminded why they impressed me the first time around. They turned in a solid set of unreleased material, all of an extremely high standard, and all delivered with a cool slickness that demands attention. The sound was blighted somewhat by an increasingly obtrusive bass feedback, and they left without playing 'Stare to Declare', my favourite of their songs. Still, I didn't feel short-changed by any means.
The same can't be said of Wild Palms' performance. It all started out promisingly enough, building an ethereal atmosphere, but as the set progresses so my interest rapidly diminishes and my disappointment grows. The band simply don't engage, and the textures of the recorded versions of the songs are swamped in a haze of aural fog.
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This wouldn't be a problem if the atmosphere was heightened as proceedings unravelled, but the songs, which lack anything to really distinguish one from the other, are all very much on a level, and 'Delight in Temptation' and 'Draw in Light', which should be show-stoppers simply fade into a sonic swamp. There's no real dynamic, and equally, very little substance as the lacklustre and rather self-absorbed performance reveals the songs to be lacking any real meat. And while front of stage is occupied by a brace of keyboards, with the exception of Lou Hill's waving arms, there's very little movement up there.
It's not just me: apart from a couple of the hipster teens sitting on the steps looking decidedly bored, the front row is somewhere near the sound desk. No-one's into it, and by the end of the set the crowd has thinned to fifteen or so. It could well be that after the early hype, Wild Palms simply haven't got the goods.
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