This show at The Camden Underworld was the launch gig for the self-titled debut album by Teiger and was part of the So Live Sessions, that is basically a student/New bands night in the same vein the venue has been running since the late 80's at least. Being student night, they have a 14+ age limit in place, I feel extremely old, so much so that I'm sure the time The Ice Mummies performed at one of these nights, in the 1990's would be before any of the band members tonight were born, so at least none of the bands would have seen my antics that night as onstage dancer.
In the grand tradition of these night's, I missed the first band on entirely, arriving just before Anolah An Zee Bonez came on, they are an extremely young female trio, who opened there set with Glide that set the pace of most of the set, as being quite slow, bare bones soul pop, that was rather sparse but intriguing.
The bands recent single Stones sounded similar, like most of the set its crying out for the band to work with a decent producer, to help them color in the outlines they currently have. Anolah told us that extra Extra was one of the bands few upbeat songs, it was a bit faster with some more forceful drumming that might have been influenced by Soul To Soul. Scratch slowed things back down, hearing these love songs being sung by an 18-year-old was making me a little uneasy.
Anolah then insisted it was time for a Jazzy interlude as we found out all about Your Loving Heart apparently, she's already heartbroken, she might have been listening to her dads Chick Corea records as it had that sort of laid back jazzy vibe.
Gimme All Your Love was sadly not a cover song, I have to say much as the thought was nice, I am probably closer to her grandparents age. Belly was again sparse, in need of some keyboards or brass to liven it up.
They then closed with the song that really got my cringing Suck My Toes, as once that line was in my head being sung by an 18 year old, I was really trying not to have the image in my head, that said it was the best song of the set, as they let loose really going for it, with far more forceful drums and bass, in places they sounded like they were about to go grunge. If Anolah can find the right producer she could well have a great career.
Next on were Rival Karma who describe themselves as being a Ninja Rock duo originally from Central Illinois, who have been around for at least 7 years. They opened with a song I guess was called Love, it set the bands template of cock rock guitars and drums with more modern lyrics.
Wasting Time set out the band's priorities nicely with a great riff. I think it was Can't Be Your Lover next that kept the hard riffing, in your face drumming sound going. They told us the next song was about asking for somewhere to stay after a gig in Chico, the guy who invited them over was called Jesus, hence they had to write a song called Jesus Is From Chico, I disagree he's writing this review, as my old reviewing name was always Bejesus when I wrote for a Chicago based webzine. It was one of the best songs they played.
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Chew My Gum got the crowd going nicely with some audience participation, before they closed with Apocalypse Boogie that featured a good breakdown as the singer went and lived out his Underworld dreams, by playing his guitar solo from in front of the side bar, as all sorts of legends have, from the days when it would have been L7 or Velvet Crush doing it, a great fun end to a decent set.
Then Teiger came on, they are a new Swedish/English trio of Talie Rose Eigeland, Philip Eldridge and Jon Steele they opened with the instrumental The Crawl that was in a similar vein to Mind Pass era Isildurs Bane, the beat was reasonably straight ahead, as the bass and guitar flew off in a variety of directions.
Sahara has some bewitching vocals from Talie, as the bass seemed to play counter rhythms to the drums in a very intriguing way. Come And Find Me had me trying to work out which tune by John Lawton with Diana Express it reminds me of musically, even if vocally it was edging somewhere between Miki Berenyi and Liz Frazer it also had a few of the band's fans singing along to the band's latest single.
The Law Of Diminishing Returns was clouded in reverb with dark bass reverberations colliding with the solidly out there drumming.
Splinter was I think the song that seemed to speed up halfway through, as they had more of goth industrial edge to it.
Slow Burning had a guitar line that coiled itself around you as the warped bassline lit the fuse. They then dedicated there cover of Portishead's Glory Box to Anna who is apparently the biggest Portishead fan they know; This was a reasonably straight cover and got the atmospherics just about spot on.
The Thinnest Wall has all sorts of sounds bleeding through as you listen in to another argument you don't want to hear, unlike this song that has the angst of wanting the noise to end, down nicely. They closed the set with Hydra that might have stolen a line or two from the Within Temptation album of the same name, as the guitar frayed at the edges of the descending bassline that brought everything to an end.
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