Tight. Not as in the Scotsman’s heckled reputation nor as in ‘as a gnat’s chuff’. No, the kind of tight I am talking about is the unmistakeable musical tightness of a band that have been playing together and on the road together for long enough to be seamless on stage.
And with a little radio play, you might have expected a little livelier crowd at this Thursday night gig. It was testament enough to the line up that the place was packed and sold out.
Lead singer Luke’s relaxed banter between songs (strangely perfectly audible until he got to the name of any song he was about to play!) was genuine and unaffected, simple and light – all as down-to-earth as the guys themselves who offered a magic piece of seven-song, 30 minute disco-rock tonight!
But while their characters may be simple and light, there are bits of their music which live in stark contrast to this. “Sylvia, The Bee Keeper”, for instance, third up in tonight’s set, is a corking piece of musical Escher –you can’t quite figure out where the beats start and finish. And yet, somehow, it all makes perfect sense.
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Their hook, though, are the straight up, 4/4 disco-rock tracks. Opener “Rhine Maidens” was followed by their most famous track in the UK to date, “Story Problem”, both of which have the kind of snap-happy pinched high-hat that makes you want to dance, even if in a jerky, “white-kids-can’t-dance-at-a-school-disco” kind of a way…..
With an album out in May/June time and an EP out on iTunes on Monday, followed by a vinyl version of the EP being released end of Feb/beginning of March, I suggest that, come Monday, you get downloading and onto their myspace so that you can start learning the tunes..... “Story Problem” was definitely missing an angry choir of extra voices , cause that song has the makings of one of the best drunken sing-along bits for ages!....next time, I hope.
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