Feted by the likes of Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, LA’s THE BLOOD ARM could well be the next big thing from across the water. They certainly aren’t backward in coming forward either – employing the services of a weirdly charismatic weasel-like MC to big them up before they take to the stage, with wild tales of the band building that very stage beyond the atmosphere and into space. Well, you had to be there I guess.
The Blood Arm make an agreeably raucous racket, in a Strokesy kind of way, but what sets them apart from the hordes of CBGB wannabes is the magnetic personality of front man Nathaniel Fregoso. On paper, overweight curly haired chaps with Dionysian pretentions do not good rock stars make, but, hey, that never stopped Jim Morrison. And the antics of the Lizard King are undoubtedly echoed in Fregoso’s performance tonight, alongside those of Iggy Pop and David Johannson. He seems to spend most of the gig amidst and occasionally on top of the crowd, punctuating songs with hypercamp exhortations. It was an undeniably exciting performance, and for a few minutes we were transported to the Bowery in 1975.
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Newcastle’s MAXIMO PARK finally take to the stage at twenty to eleven. I know it’s a Bank Holiday lads, but some of us are getting on a bit and need our kip. Actually, I feel a bit sorry for Maximo Park, being as they are in the unenviable position of being the band from the north east who are a bit like The Futureheads but not quite as good. They also have the misfortune of having a very good support band, and, compared with The Blood Arm, they seem a little workaday. Sure, ‘Apply Some Pressure’ is a cracking song and incredibly catchy. Unfortunately everything else they had on offer tonight seemed like new wave by numbers. Maximo Park are technically competent, energetic and committed. They just aren’t that interesting.
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