A band I haven’t yet seen in a venue I haven’t yet checked. My excitement wasn’t even dampened by having to step past a young girl barfing at the entrance. It was half seven, she had done well. Come on, we’ve all been there right? No? Oh.
The Whip spawned out of Manchester’s laptops and guitars era in 2006, producing hits such as “Trash” and “Divebomb”, releasing album “X Marks Destination” in 2008 and then largely hiding from the limelight. Thankfully, they weren’t just a flash in the pan as they returned in 2011 releasing second album “Wired Together”. Now, I didn’t know much about this band, I had occasionally over heard friends praise them if they were mentioned “They sound a bit like LCD Sound System and Soulwax” and “They remind me of New Order” but what I feared the most was “They sound like Hard-Fi”. Oh God. Surely not.
Eager to enter the venue, I quickly push through the doors to enter a large bar area, it’s industrial and comforting and at the same time; dead. Eventually a few people appear and I follow them up the stairs. A young looking band are on stage and to be honest, I’m initially more aware of the group of leathered and baked tweenagers in the corner “over” dancing out of time and rhythm to the song I’ve walked halfway into. They’ve got to be mates with sicky girl outside. The song comes to an end and I can’t help but roll my eyes as the band Catfish and the Bottlemen stand and talk about moustaches. Yawn. However within seconds I fall deeply into their poetic style lyrics and their twelve minute powerful encore of flashing lights that catches glimpses of them in a head bangable assault of guitars and drums. Their riffs are contagious and their light hearted lyrics have teen appeal ;focussing on the young bands shenanigans: love, lust, lost, partying etc Yes they have slightly messy hair, tight jeans and sweet looking guitars making it easy to dismiss them for The Strokes wannabes. But they seem different; incredibly manic, intense, confident and precise, speedy and passionate. They’re explosive rock and roll as well as radio ready; I’m thinking BBC 6 rather than Radio 1.
Deflating isn’t the word for the next lot; The Propellors. The name mislead me into thinking they’d blow my mind and glide me away to the planet of rock. It’s very rare I’m bored within minutes whilst viewing a new unheard band. Cue the singer draping over the bar, rolling his tongue around his cheeks and sipping on a spirit prior their slot and looking like what I can only describe as a …get ready…a clone of Donnie Torette from the Towers of London. Not the best start already. They were dull. Yes that’s harsh but nothing about them or their music stood out. They were like Spinal Tap without the amusement. Their cheeky song titled Quick and Dirty didn’t even raise an eyebrow. I became so bored watching this Helsinki band that I found myself watching the soundman trying to cram in a colossal Saajans kebab.
Thankfully their presence was short lived and the dissatisfaction was replaced twenty minutes later with a darkened room and an unsettling intro of In the House in a Heartbeat by John Murphy. Don’t get me wrong, they were good BUT some tunes sounded like they were trying too hard and lacked a bit of depth; “Intensity” lacked killer lyrics and pop nous and “Master of Ceremonies” sounded a bit like Underworld. The slightly cheesy lines made it difficult to take seriously as a proper electro tune and it put a halt on the desire to get lost in an electro trance dance. However, despite these slight flaws they do well to link the guitar riffs and dance beats together and you can notify that Jagz Kooner produced their second album through the good use of acid bleeps.
Despite that in some songs it felt like something was missing, others contained an element of edgy sleek futuristic noise relevant to Kraftwerk and Klaxons. The track Muzzle sounded like a B Side of New Order and the chest thudding funk was reminiscent of Daft Punk layered with electronic textures and synthetic pulses. I especially liked the thumping backbeats and sleazy electro hypnotic keyboarding skills. They ended in a polished post rave euphoria and suddenly disappeared with no encore. Very cool.
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