Review:
'FOUNTAIN, THE/ SIR, YES SIR/ LOUIS BARRABAS'
'Manchester, Bad Marmalade House Party,14 June 2008'
- Genre: 'Indie'
|
Our Rating:
|
|
As a rule I don’t like house parties. There’s never enough to drink, you have to queue to take a piss and worst of all there is the high possibility of having endure the torture and stress of other people’s record collections. But this party is different, Bad Marmalade do away with the need for incompetent bedroom DJ’s or Kooks infested I-pod play-lists by bringing live music to your living room.
At every house party I have ever been to for some reason everyone deems it necessary to congregate in the kitchen. I’m not entirely sure why this is, the obvious suggestion would be that it’s a result of some primeval instinct to protect that warm bottle of White Zinfandel tucked behind the toaster, barely concealed by it’s Tesco carrier bag disguise. Or maybe revellers are wooed by the prospect of better lighting so that they can more accurately assess the sexual attractiveness of their fellow guests. Perhaps the kitchen is just cooler than the lounge, it’s so much less obvious a place to hang-out. If this review were the Sex and the City movie, one of the screeching harpies would most probably confirm my suspicions that the Kitchen is clearly the new Lounge. However any sort of Front Room related apathy this evening would have led to missing three fantastic acts.
First on the patch of carpet where the rug used to be are SIR YES SIR. Coming on like a scuzzed up scenester friendly Sebadoh, their floppy haired, literate take on lo-fi is an absolute treat. Noisy and distorted, but equally melodic ‘Sideways’ is the moment when they let their pop sensibilities shine through brightest; clearly the highlight of an articulate set which drags people from the kitchen and receives a great reception from those perched on the stairs.
Tonight’s headliners THE FOUNTAIN are a band on the ascension, they arrive tonight armed with an arsenal of Girl/Boy vocals, an array of toy instruments, a natty line in knitwear and a batch of quirky, intelligent pop songs. Indebted to the spirit of such revered artists as Julian Cope, Guided by Voices and Wire they manage to conjure their influences into a sound that is uniquely their own.
‘Give me back my basement’ is a slice of jangly, lo-fi with a dark lyrical take on romance “ There’s a boy who makes me sad, I want to send a burning kite onto his head and make him mad at me” sings Maria Dada, and from the tone in her voice and the look in her eyes I for one will be doing my uppermost to stay on the right side of her. ‘1920’ begins starkly led by Ted Kemp’s understated vocal delivery and images of melting patches of snow before veering into a chorus which wouldn’t be out of place on Debaser. The set finishes with “Living in a house in Wales” - an art-pop classic in the making - and as they reprise the chorus for the final time it is clear to see that the living rooms of the nation are theirs for the taking. They return briefly for an admittedly shambolic and unrehearsed encore, which sees Dada collapsing fully into the Drum Kit by the mantelpiece and a rapturous reception from the entire house.
|
Taking to the living room floor shortly after midnight, still drenched in sweat from an earlier gig with his main concern The Black Velvet Band, and with just an acoustic guitar for support, LOUIS BARRABAS makes a special late-night guest appearance.
Those who took off home for an early night really missed out. With his lyrically adept tales of love and loss this intimate environment seems to be the perfect environment for him. The confined space does nothing to contain his enthusiasm and his lower limbs seem to kick out at improbable angles as his cartoon face and showmanship brings his words to life. A cover of version of the Jungle Book classic “I wanna be like you” nearly brings the house down prematurely and by the time he finishes the set with the Black Velvet Band song The Tell-Tale Hound in which he informs us he will play Man, Woman and Dog the kitchen for once is completely deserted.
|
| |
author: Adam / Photos: Mark Heery
|
[Show all reviews for this Artist]
|
READERS COMMENTS
10 comments still available (max 10)
[Click here to add your own comments]
There are currently no comments...
----------
|
|
Bad Marmalade present...
SIR YES SIR
THE FOUNTAIN
|
 |
