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ventaRight. I think I've just about got over the disappointment of seeing Dogs Die In Hot Cats enough to write gig reviews again.
I've seen Punish the Atom a few times before, but they've always seemed to be plagued by technical difficulties. I've persevered going to see them - you have to support your mates even if they're not brilliant, and their lead guitarist is the brother of a friend (not, as I've been accidentally claiming this week, a friend of my brother. I don't have a brother.)
It's a while since I saw them last. During that time they've acquired a new drummer, written a whole load of new songs, ditched their Kiss-esque stage makeup and improved in a great big bound. Standing at the front of the Barfly in Camden on Monday night I found myself really enjoying their set, despite it consisting almost entirely of new songs which I didn't know (only one or two remaining from their first album).
I'm not quite sure what's different in their new direction - less distorted guitar, I think, and more melody. They still shout a lot, but seem to have evolved an interesting percussive style, rather than just shouting. I'm not sure whether they're actually added a lot more backing vocals, or whether that's just my failing memory (or a result of technical problems on previous occasions). Certainly the sound was a lot more coherent than I remember - and Jamie even commented that the sound wasn't that great, so maybe I've still not heard them at their best.
I think they've settled into a style of their own, and it's distinctive and interesting. They're also sounding a lot more polished than when I last saw them - they're still just on the side of "a friend's band" rather than "proper headliner", but only just, and they're heading rapidly in the right direction. I'm really looking forward to their next album, whenever it's coming out.
I also found myself really wishing I had a camera with me. Despite wearing all black, they're an extremely visually orientated band. This is probably mostly down to the front man who, being vocals only, has his hands free to allow him to climb up stuff, swing off stuff, hurl himself about, posture mightily on monitors and leap around. Unusually, he doesn't look like a fool while doing it, either, and has an ability not to tangle himself up in the mike cable which many singers would do well to learn from. Even the other members, though, I kept finding myself mentally framing photos round them.
Really not sure about their silver spangly neckties, though.
Although I'd really gone to see Punish The Atom, I stuck around afterwards to listen to the New York band Radio 4. I'd waggled my ears vaguely at a couple of their mp3s earlier in the day, and decided they were OK and inoffensive enough. As it happens, they were absolutely great.
They got me on their side straight off: two drummers. One guy with an ordinary rock drum kit, and one guy with a bongos and woodblocks sort of line up. I'm a big fan of multiple percussionists, and the bongo player really knew what he was doing. Four out of the five of them sing (multiple vocalists too - even better), and the main front man is actully the bassist. The result is a very rhythm-based sound, with the guitar actually barely (to me) noticeable.
On a few songs, the bongo player drops out and just contents himself with a tambourine or two - and for these they sound like a fairly generic NY guitar band. A group who want to be the Strokes but haven't quite managed it. But for the rest, they're stunning. And they did like their percussion - the bongo-dude was contracting out spare tambourines to the front row, and the keyboard player had obviously been told that if he was only going to play with one hand, he could jolly well shake a couple of maraccas in the other.
Although they sound nothing like them, watching Radio 4 reminded me of watching In The Nursery. It wasn't just the excess of percussion - they shared the slightly odd quirk of sounding like the sort of music that you should only hear recorded, and that couldn't really be performed live. I can't really justify that sentence :)
Radio 4 came back for an encore, and picked up a stray Libertine. He joined them on stage, making three drummers, and by the middle of their encore Punish The Atom's drummer had arrived on stage too. Percussion frenzy. If Radio 4 are playing near you, go and see them.
Incidentally, in case anyone's wondering about the shipping forecast and The Archers and so on, Radio 4 are called after a Public Image song - which I don't know, so can't comment on the relevance to the radio station.
I've seen Punish the Atom a few times before, but they've always seemed to be plagued by technical difficulties. I've persevered going to see them - you have to support your mates even if they're not brilliant, and their lead guitarist is the brother of a friend (not, as I've been accidentally claiming this week, a friend of my brother. I don't have a brother.)
It's a while since I saw them last. During that time they've acquired a new drummer, written a whole load of new songs, ditched their Kiss-esque stage makeup and improved in a great big bound. Standing at the front of the Barfly in Camden on Monday night I found myself really enjoying their set, despite it consisting almost entirely of new songs which I didn't know (only one or two remaining from their first album).
I'm not quite sure what's different in their new direction - less distorted guitar, I think, and more melody. They still shout a lot, but seem to have evolved an interesting percussive style, rather than just shouting. I'm not sure whether they're actually added a lot more backing vocals, or whether that's just my failing memory (or a result of technical problems on previous occasions). Certainly the sound was a lot more coherent than I remember - and Jamie even commented that the sound wasn't that great, so maybe I've still not heard them at their best.
I think they've settled into a style of their own, and it's distinctive and interesting. They're also sounding a lot more polished than when I last saw them - they're still just on the side of "a friend's band" rather than "proper headliner", but only just, and they're heading rapidly in the right direction. I'm really looking forward to their next album, whenever it's coming out.
I also found myself really wishing I had a camera with me. Despite wearing all black, they're an extremely visually orientated band. This is probably mostly down to the front man who, being vocals only, has his hands free to allow him to climb up stuff, swing off stuff, hurl himself about, posture mightily on monitors and leap around. Unusually, he doesn't look like a fool while doing it, either, and has an ability not to tangle himself up in the mike cable which many singers would do well to learn from. Even the other members, though, I kept finding myself mentally framing photos round them.
Really not sure about their silver spangly neckties, though.
Although I'd really gone to see Punish The Atom, I stuck around afterwards to listen to the New York band Radio 4. I'd waggled my ears vaguely at a couple of their mp3s earlier in the day, and decided they were OK and inoffensive enough. As it happens, they were absolutely great.
They got me on their side straight off: two drummers. One guy with an ordinary rock drum kit, and one guy with a bongos and woodblocks sort of line up. I'm a big fan of multiple percussionists, and the bongo player really knew what he was doing. Four out of the five of them sing (multiple vocalists too - even better), and the main front man is actully the bassist. The result is a very rhythm-based sound, with the guitar actually barely (to me) noticeable.
On a few songs, the bongo player drops out and just contents himself with a tambourine or two - and for these they sound like a fairly generic NY guitar band. A group who want to be the Strokes but haven't quite managed it. But for the rest, they're stunning. And they did like their percussion - the bongo-dude was contracting out spare tambourines to the front row, and the keyboard player had obviously been told that if he was only going to play with one hand, he could jolly well shake a couple of maraccas in the other.
Although they sound nothing like them, watching Radio 4 reminded me of watching In The Nursery. It wasn't just the excess of percussion - they shared the slightly odd quirk of sounding like the sort of music that you should only hear recorded, and that couldn't really be performed live. I can't really justify that sentence :)
Radio 4 came back for an encore, and picked up a stray Libertine. He joined them on stage, making three drummers, and by the middle of their encore Punish The Atom's drummer had arrived on stage too. Percussion frenzy. If Radio 4 are playing near you, go and see them.
Incidentally, in case anyone's wondering about the shipping forecast and The Archers and so on, Radio 4 are called after a Public Image song - which I don't know, so can't comment on the relevance to the radio station.
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Date: 2005-06-01 03:58 pm (UTC)You're excused knowing Punish the Atom lyrics - which this was. Though I'm told that it also appears (by convergent evolution) in a Beta Band song.