"No artist likes to pigeonhole his or her own music"...These are words from the CatDesigners website. Don't worry chaps, this is what people like me do. Thoughtful, eh? The CatDesigners are thoughtful too, helpfully providing a list of influences on their website. This makes my task a whole lot easier. I wondered if I even needed to go and see them to write the review. But to see a band who list Marilyn Manson alongside Ennio Morricone amongst their "influences and (current) favourite artists" was too tempting to pass up.
CatDesigners modestly position themselves "somewhere between Bowie and Beck" on their musical influence time line. Live, they sound like neither. And tonight they sound a little flat and unexciting. This is not because they are flat and unexciting. Having acquired both Strange Little Creatures and Chemical Jazz after the gig, I was later to discover they are a band with much songwriting ability and a talent for creating songs which dodge conventional structures. The Bowie influence is often tangible.
"Where You Go" is spooky on record, like a ride on a ghost train with the Coral fronted by Morrissey or Rossiter. Tonight such a comparison would be overblown - the character of the band lost. The title of "A Mind Like Mine" hints at greatness but is ordinary. The band break down between "Vain As I Am" and the next song, Nick commenting sardonically that the songs lead "seamlessly into the next". It's amusing, but also a little token of tonight’s performance.
By the time they do get into "Medicine Song", they start hitting their stride, even though it misses some of the waltzer organ effects of the records (where is the fourth member of Cat Designers?). "Freak Show" follows; it is an oddity and not very good on record. The live rendition does it no favours - though you can see that the thing about Marilyn Manson wasn't just a joke. This isn't to my taste but it may be yours. To me it just sounds wrong.
"Strange Gods" sounds like Kinky Machine, the guitar effects lending to the bands interest in creating a sound which touches their latent curiosity in irrational theology. This is also demonstrated by "Heaven's On Your Side" - which starts off as a pretty little number before ruthlessly being slashed into by a rather dazzling sounding glam-guitar riff, Nick's soloing showing us that his ability lends itself to guitar heroics as well as song writing.
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The finale, "Congratulations On Your Head", a song title that sounds that it might of popped out of the head of Miles Hunt, is dedicated to those "who can't think straight" - most of tonight's audience presumably. It glam stomps along with some serious intent and is bigger and better than on record, but then they're finished.
Tonight CatDesigners sound a little tired and as if they're more comfortable playing within the confines of a studio. You get the feeling that they want the success and recognition that is presently eluding them, especially for the obviously talented, though world-weary singer Nick Troop. This band has both the songs and talent - but do they have the thirst? There are a lot of people out there that would be touched by this music - but they need to hear it first.
They need to lock themselves into a rehearsal studio and just bang out these songs over and over again, because on tonight’s performance they're currently lacking in live confidence, fluidity and panache. They need to get around every two-bit toilet venue in London and let people hear their talent. And gents: fuck the website and business cards, you're not salesmen - let the music speak for itself.
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