Your reviewer's slightly embarrassed here because THE WAITING ROOM hail from his neck of the woods (i.e Cork) and yet he's missed out on several previous opportunities to see the band live in the months leading up to the release of "Catering For Headphones."
And, while he pleads mitigating circumstances rather than indolence for this oversight, "Catering For Headphones" suggests The Waiting Room oughtta be put on his 'to check out live pronto' list as on this evidence they do have a certain something.
From what I can gather, this is the deal: The Waiting Room are three (Nigel - vox, guitar, Dave - bass and drummer Wayne), though they do surreptitiously enjoy trysts with lonely cellos on occasion and are especially good at atmosphere. They may or may not be named after an especially good Fugazi song ( they name Fugazi as a band they listen to), though the only time they utilise a similar dynamic is during the revved-up coda towards the end of final track "Carousel", so like a lot of things round here, this is a fact that's left hanging.
Indeed, The Waiting Room are pleasantly difficult to pigeonhole. Though opening duo "Waller Street" (aching, languid guitar chords and swoops of cellos frame a whispered, malevolent commentary) and "I Took Some Painkillers" (tricksy, tempo defying instrumental) revel in minor chords, they're too brevity-fuelled to qualify as lumbering 'post-rock'.
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Elswehere, though, while tracks like "Amsterdam" and the plangent "Angel" are hypnotic, attractively dreamlike drones, they're too dirge-y to boast anything like obvious choruses. So generic indie's out, too. And they're probably all the better for it. Indeed, the best tracks here ("Carousel", "Amsterdam" and the resolutely down, Red House Painters' shadowing "Message Received") remind us that this business is supposed to be about ploughing a distinctive furrow rather than falling between the stools set up by the trend-conscious media. Besides, any band who can record a song full of resignation and loss and title it "Return My Rabbits" is alright by me.
"Catering For Headphones," then, is a likeably downbeat 40 minutes with enough flashes of vitriol to keep you interested. It sounds equally good working the spaces in a bigger room and, as the title suggests, does the biz if you fancy hiding in your own headspace.
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