The great thing about these package tours with rotating headliners is that you're always going to see and hear something you otherwise might not have bothered checking out, and if you don't like it, the sets are relatively short. Plus, it's pretty much guaranteed that people will be in for early doors for fear of missing the band they want to see most. The downside is that if the band everyone's there to see is on earlier, there's a risk people will bugger off and miss the rest of the acts, leaving a half-empty room for the nominal headliners.
And so it was tonight. After local act These City Walls opened with a brief set - they were ok, but it was pretty clear it's early days and they've a lot to learn, and they suffered from having the vocals - not their strongest feature - too high in the mix. Still, they did the job of warming up an expectant and swelling crowd ahead of Dinosaur Pile-Up.
Taking the stage early, they essentially blasted through a set of their '(greatest) hits' with a few album tracks thrown in for good measure. Having thought their recorded stuff was ok, and certainly fills a gap in the market, seeing them live really made me appreciate why they're getting so much attention. For a start, they have songs. Songs of angst and frustration and all the rest, delivered using a grunge template and all wrapped up as perfect pop songs. What's not to like? It's clear they're enjoying themselves, too, and never ease off the gas during an extremely lively and entertaining set. Powering through 'Mona Lisa', 'My Rock 'n' Roll' and closing with an attacking rendition of 'Traynor', the energy they pour into their performance is really something. Small wonder the crowd love 'em, especially as most of them won't have been born when 'Nevermind' - or even the first Foo Fighters album - was released. I seem to recall saying a year or so back that we were due a grunge revival. Well, here it is.
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Xcerts had a tough act to follow, and sadly, simply weren’t up to the task. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with their set, it just lacked spark and the material lacked the necessary features to differentiate them from countless other alt. rock acts.
It's a pity that so many filtered out during Xcerts set, because it meant they missed Japanese Voyeurs, who demonstrated a real knack for driving guitar-driven songs delivered with punch. Romily Alice may be a waif of a girl but you'd probably not want to pick a fight with her. She possesses a voice reminiscent of Katie Jane Garside and radiates some serious attitude – not to mention guitar noise. Their sound is pure grunge, and pure grit-filled energy. The last time I heard a band perform the Nine Inch Nails track 'Closer' live, it was Nine Inch Nails on the Downward Spiral tour. It's a measure of Japanese Voyeurs' abilities that they managed to cover the song without it being a carbon copy of the original, or utterly crap. In fact, it was both brilliant and exhilarating - which pretty much sums up their set.
Ultimately, the two great bands made up for the two less great bands, and it felt good being back in 1992 for a night, too.
Dinosaur Pile-Up Online
Xcerts Online
Japanese Voyeurs on MySpace
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