Hey Zeus, El Born, Nome & The Natives live at The Good Ship, Kilburn 5.2.13.
We got into The Good Ship just before the very young Nome And The Natives came on, they really went for it and Nome who I assume is the front woman really worked the tube strike depleted audience really hard, they sound like a modern indie goth band somewhere between Savages and Cold Cave but with much less attitude than either of those bands.
Fear For You was good and angsty and the drummer really ripped into it while the singer stalked the stage while also playing keyboards. Ghost Child really sounded like an old X-mal Deutschland tune meets early Lush. They have loads of potential once the guitarist gets a bit more variety in his solos.
By the time they finished with the big lighters in the air style ballad Whisper In The Night they had won most of us over and it was a good infectious ballad to finish with, hopefully they will be well worth seeing and the ep they are about to record should be worth a listen.
Then it was time for the second show I've seen on El Born's current tour to promote the new Kangaroo ep that's released on the 10th February http://www.elborn.org/ They opened with Kangaroo and this was a spikier sounding version than the last time with Si Connelly almost spitting the lyrics at us.
You Made Me was next which I think is about the childhood event that changed Si's life when he accidentally burnt down his parent's home, it was good and angry and his vocals melded with Hils backing vocals. 1982 was next and they really went for it with Si on his knees playing his guitar solo and ringing plenty of emotion from his guitar and the lyrics about wanting to go back to that year.
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And It's Still A Long Time had them bouncing around the stage and Si really showing us his full vocal range hitting some rather high notes and sounding pretty emotional, which continued on White Rabbit that sounded a lot tighter than last time as they have benefited from playing several shows a week.
They closed the set by giving everything they had on Now That It's Over that saw them wring everything they could out of it making sure to leave us all wanting to hear more from El Born.
Next on were Hey Zeus who seemed a bit confused as to what they want to be, some sort of semi acoustic rock band, but with a bass player who looks like he just stepped out of from dusk till dawn and wants to be in Amon Amarth and a singer who would like to be the next David Grey but is actually just very beige indeed.
They made very little impression on me apart from the singer needed shooting for how he murdered Johnny Cash's Jackson, as he might have got most of the lyrics right but not one note of the tune was as it should have been, a total travesty.
I'll not be needing to see Hey Zeus again but would recommend both El Born and Nome And The Natives as bands to watch out for and see live.
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