Monday 22 June - yes I know it's a school night, but we're out to watch Nine Black Alps, the post-grunge/indie quartet from Manchester. But first of all we get to sample the delights of The Federals and Airship.
The Federals are a York band that we've seen before and I'm sure there were more of them on that occasion, but tonight just the two; Jim Feakes (guitar, vocals),and Jack Holdstock (drums). They sound like The White Stripes playing garage, or The Stooges. Its frantic stuff with barely a pause for breath and the volume is high tonight; 'A' resorted to ear defenders very early on. A lively start to the evening, although a bit samey sounding.
Next up were Airship and I was expecting (dreading?) more of the same. I was wrong. Airship hail from Manchester and the line up is: Elliott Williams (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Marcus Wheeldon (guitar, vocals), Steven Griffiths (drums), and Tom Dyball (bass). The songs were much more structured and rich, shimmering sometimes like Sigur Ros, or plunging into a dark corner of a cave inhabited by The Cure. The keyboard playing sometimes wandered off into another dimension and had us turning to each other and muttering "Hawkwind". I managed to catch the titles of a few tracks; Kids, This is Hell, and the gloriously guitar-laden Call It Science. Excellent band, well worth listening out for.
And so to the head-liners, Mancester-based NBA consists of Sam Forrest (vocals, guitar, he comes from York don't yer know), David Jones (guitar), Martin Cohen (bass), and James Galley (drums). Now I've not heard much from this band since their 2005 debut album Everything Is which was what prompted me to see them first time around. Since then they've released Love/Hate in 2007 which didn't do so well. They are currently touring their latest offering, Locked out from the Inside, which is due for release in autumn this year.
Malevolent guitars, amps set to eleven, drumming as if to save your life, Martin (bass) getting really intimate with the nearest wall. They made enough noise to wake the dead. Tracks from the new album littered the set which basically spanned the best bits of their first two albums. Frontman Sam Forrest has the voice of Kurt Cobain but injected with high octane energy that fairly spits out from the stage. Title track Locked out from the Inside. was an ear-battering thrill, Heavier Than Water and Burn Faster were delivered with gut-wrenching intensity, get Your Guns, Shot-Down, and Not Everyone were ten times better than listening in your front room. Of the new stuff, Vampire In The Sun was a filthy grunge stomp, Every Photo made my trousers shake, and Cold Star was a fuzzed out, freaked out trip. Awesome stuff but we felt slightly cheated by the lack of an encore. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment