THE STRANGE BOYS are a 'must-see' band, one friend told me. Another, who saw them at SXSW, deemed them 'overrated' and 'really quite bad'. Another still has never heard of them even though their song 'Be Brave' has been all over the radio these last few months. A top class tune with a wailing bluesy vocal and a guitar drenched in reverb, the call-and-response nature of the song has made it a killer closer for indie clubs - it's got that balance of dancey swagger and melancholy sobriety that you want. It's just enough to keep you going and send you out happy into the darkness, fumbling for a nightbus and a kebab.
These sons of Texas have have achieved enough in the short few years they've been together to warrant waht seems to be a near sold-out show at the ICA tonight - a venue that has long been the place where many performances mark the change from cult to commercial. On record, they've shown much maturity and development with their sophomore release on Rough Trade (also titled "Be Brave") that hints at much.
Tonight, they fail to match up to that promise but it's not for want of trying. While they come across as a perverse recreation of the Stones at their most ramshackle on record, it's more muted live. There is little symbiosis between them - frontman Ryan Sambol stands isolated, stage left, doing his thing while his fellow band members also exist in their own little spaces. While Sambol's wailing vocal is perfectly suited to the stumbling, raucous numbers like "Be Brave", it's less effective during calmer songs.
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Three songs in, they ask "Does this all feel a bit weird tonight?", sensing something's amiss - and it's not their fault. There's just no atmosphere in the house and it kills the show. They reclaim a bit of value towards the end of the set but the audience just aren't up for a sweaty rock n roll evening - people are still wearing their coats for fuck's sake! This is possibly the worst place in London for a show like this. Get a new booking agent, boys!
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