Thiis was the "I Love West Yorkshire Christmas Special".
"Christmas Special" sounds ominous.
Fear not. This gig would have been special by any standard: six bands, all crackers; all tickets sold; touts in the frozen car park; and a debut performance by the long-awaited EUREKA MACHINES.
¡FORWARD, RUSSIA! have finished recording their second album in Seattle and have been punting tracks from it on recent gigs. Tonight we were treated to six of the new songs (including the single "Don’t Be A Doctor") and four from the first album "Give Me A Wall".
The first thing to notice is how well the familiar older songs are standing up to two years of exposure. The crazy under 18s in the crowd are going just as mental as ever, and the band play the tunes with a savage energy that Tom Woodhead turns into the ecstasy of his near-death strangulation routine. He completely disappeared into the mosh pit at one point. The adrenaline is not just imported from youthful madness though - it's right there in the music. The breakneck tempos and stuttering deliveries make a very exciting racket. Those bewildering, swerving tunes have somehow become familiar anthems: Fifteen Pt 1, Twelve, Thirteen, and Nine fly past and we scream all the lines (including the ones we still couldn’t write down in English).
Nevertheless, it is the new songs that make this gig extra special. " Don’t Be A Doctor" was the first verbally titled single after all those numbers. It opened tonight's set with a roar and set the bigger, richer tone that the new ¡FORWARD, RUSSIA! material is made from. Our psychedelic English choristers have sniffed the Yankee diesel, and looked out North West into the Pacific. They've now got bearskins and growling bass lines and layers of surf guitar and digital delay. It sounds loads more than the good-old visceral yelp-fest. It’s full-bodied and musically dense. Each of the new songs in the body of the set are totally convincing and the band are confident in performing their complexities. "Don't Reinvent What You Don’t Understand", "Gravity And Heat" and "A Shadow Is A Shadow Is A Shadow" are the growing-up brothers and sisters of the tracks on the debut "Give Me A Wall" album.
In the spell-binding final number "Spanish Triangles" gives out waves of euphoria to carry us all home. On top of the huge guitar-tingling crescendo there's a chorus that will lift audiences to sing along in triumph and pleasure. The band that used to rattle our brains and shake our limbs is now adding goose bumps to the repertoire. The house was full throated in appreciation. Relief, delight and excitement all mixed together. They've cracked it. Just like we had hoped. The album is going to be a belter.
SHUT YOUR EYES AND YOU'LL BURST INTO FLAMES had been the main support. A frantic guitar band to match ¡FORWARD, RUSSIA! two years ago, they have kept their nerve and stuck to their guns. The songs are still sounding good. But as a unit they were not as convincing and not as fresh as I remember from the Carling Weekend in 2006. The Brudenell stage offers them less room for their swerves and sprints. And if I'm not mistaken, singer Fran at least, has put on some weight and seems to be singing to his microphone rather than tonight's crowd. Sean Langan is doing most of the chat - but coming from behind the drum kit it just highlights the lack of focus up front.
THE SCARAMANGA SIX (1), meanwhile, grow sharper and meaner with age. With 2006's "The Dance of Death" still gathering fans in obdurate parts of Northern Europe, the band are previewing songs from their fifth album - planned for release during 2008. We are treated to "Walking Through Houses", "Autopsy of the Mind" and "Last Roll of The Dice". These are driving tunes, sparse in outline, but finely made and perfectly weighted. The seam of creative mania the Morricone Brothers have been hacking lumps from this last few years shows no sign of dwindling.
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Julia Arnez, always noticed, but less often mentioned in despatches, is adding a lot to the vocals while slashing that sparkly guitar and holding court in impossibly long tall stack-heeled boots. I note that the band is looking more and more like some kind of assault team, out to demolish resistance wherever it might try to hide.
Chris Catalyst has become as permanent a member of the Six as Health and Safety normally allow. Even so, on his nights off he has been playing regular away matches with THE SISTERS OF MERCY or ANTIPRODUCT or ROBOCHRIST. Tonight it becomes clear that these lives on the road have left him underemployed - and EUREKA MACHINES (4) are making a debut as Chris's own band. It’s showy, choreographed, dramatic and totally engaging rock and roll, with sideburns, spats, beetle crushers and metal riffs. This is huge entertainment, with songs like "Red Wine Smile" that (under all the cheap tricks and sucker punches) carry a lot more than a stirring mosh beat. Imagine how good The Hives would have been if they had had better songs and a darker edge. Well. That's about how EUREKA MACHINES look and sound.
INTERNATIONAL TRUST (2) have a parallel old-mates thing going with EUREKA MACHINES. Neil Hanson (like Catalyst) is the charismatic front man, vocalist, centre of attention and writer of the band's material. In earlier bands Hanson's pose and punk shout have carried the day. Tonight, in a couple of songs with INTERNATIONAL TRUST he's showing that he has a pretty strong rasp of a singing voice and that he can handle something like "I Can’t Believe" with a bit of emotional subtlety to it with authority. The "Bruce Lee" song is as likeable as ever. One or two tunes, like "Disneyland" might be ready for replacement with stronger material.
FAR FROM THE DANCE (3) were the very polished and beautifully equipped opening band. Alec Townsend is the dreadlocked white boy with the heart-broken voice and writing skills. He swaps between confident guitar and slightly less convincing keyboard while the whole five piece band make a big smooth sound with very well co-ordinated instrumentation. Surprisingly there are no backing vocals on offer. The songs themselves are not specially memorable - showing off the lush sound and artful production without revealing too much about the inner lives of the protagonists. You have to say though, that as openers on a six band bill, this is luxury stuff and absolutely no one is even close to complaining. Expectations for the rest of the evening were set even higher once they had been heard.
http://www.myspace.com/forwardrussia
http://www.myspace.com/shutyoureyesandyoullburstintoflames
http://www.myspace.com/thescaramangasix
http://www.myspace.com/eurekamachines
http://www.myspace.com/internationaltrust
http://www.myspace.com/farfromthedance
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