This was the last date of the Things National Tour. The Evangelists were on first, playing straightforward adolescent punk to a few early arrivals at The Village. I can imagine that a 14 year old just discovering punk would probably enjoy this mindless derivative tripe but it’s not my idea of good music. The vocals jumped between shouting, falsetto and animal roar but managed to remain tired and predictable throughout each identical song. The only thing vaguely interesting about The Evangelists was the singer’s rather special style of dancing, and even this became irritating after the first song. He did have amazing energy, leaping and gyrating as if receiving hundreds of tiny electric shocks, even socking himself in the mouth at one point with the mic, chipping his tooth (or pretending to?). I was hoping he was too badly hurt to continue, but no, the brave Duracell bunny battled on to the bitter end.
Next up were Yakuza. I was really looking forward to this band and the first two songs were fantastic, melodic and heavy in perfect proportions. The singer has a powerful voice, and the guitarist showed great energy but they were let down by a nervous drummer and poor sound which masked some of the more complex melodies. I’d like to see them play again with a sound engineer who knows what they’re doing.
Deputy Fuzz spent an age setting up before beginning their set. I’ve seen them before and really liked them but this was a shambolic, yelpy performance. They have a new female guitarist who also does backing vocals, leading to the inevitable Chalets comparisons. Give me The Chalets any day. Again the poor sound did them no favours, turning some decent pop-rock songs into a tinny mess. The singer has an idiosyncratic vocal style which has worked well at other gigs but tonight she showed no control and ended up sounding like a squeaky toy being tortured.
I was hoping Settler could come to the rescue. They started with a new song which featured lots of keyboard and some funky clapping, in quite a different vein to the songs on their debut album. The next few songs were familiar but weren’t as well performed as usual. They seemed quite tired and some of the vocals were a bit strained, there again probably due to poor onstage sound. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end of their set but the songs I heard were, despite a few problems, still superior to anything else on the night.
In addition to mediocre performances, the Village never really filled up enough for a good atmosphere to develop, possibly due to constant date, line-up and venue changes. I hope tonight wasn’t indicative of the rest of the tour as a huge amount of preparation went into the whole thing and it’s encouraging to see a real alternative to the chart orientated rubbish peddled by MCD et al.
Next up were Yakuza. I was really looking forward to this band and the first two songs were fantastic, melodic and heavy in perfect proportions. The singer has a powerful voice, and the guitarist showed great energy but they were let down by a nervous drummer and poor sound which masked some of the more complex melodies. I’d like to see them play again with a sound engineer who knows what they’re doing.
Deputy Fuzz spent an age setting up before beginning their set. I’ve seen them before and really liked them but this was a shambolic, yelpy performance. They have a new female guitarist who also does backing vocals, leading to the inevitable Chalets comparisons. Give me The Chalets any day. Again the poor sound did them no favours, turning some decent pop-rock songs into a tinny mess. The singer has an idiosyncratic vocal style which has worked well at other gigs but tonight she showed no control and ended up sounding like a squeaky toy being tortured.
I was hoping Settler could come to the rescue. They started with a new song which featured lots of keyboard and some funky clapping, in quite a different vein to the songs on their debut album. The next few songs were familiar but weren’t as well performed as usual. They seemed quite tired and some of the vocals were a bit strained, there again probably due to poor onstage sound. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end of their set but the songs I heard were, despite a few problems, still superior to anything else on the night.
In addition to mediocre performances, the Village never really filled up enough for a good atmosphere to develop, possibly due to constant date, line-up and venue changes. I hope tonight wasn’t indicative of the rest of the tour as a huge amount of preparation went into the whole thing and it’s encouraging to see a real alternative to the chart orientated rubbish peddled by MCD et al.
