venta

Several months ago, I heard a cheerful, poppy track on radio 1. Afterwards the DJ said that it had been Tilly and the Wall, and added "and that sound you could hear, it wasn't drums. It was live tap-dancing". Yay, I thought, sounds like a band to check out.

Next time I was at ChrisC's, I mentioned that Tilly and the Wall sounded like a band who might be fun live. Unbeknownst to me, he was at that moment browsing gig-listings online and observed that they would shortly be touring; a pair of tickets turned up as part of my birthday present.

Which explains what we were doing wandering into ULU last night, going to see a band when neither of us had much of a clear idea what they were going to sound like.

The stage was in darkness, and out of nowhere came a single drum beat. Then onto the stage bounced a mob of people all clapping along and jumping up and down before launching into their first song.

They're a mis-matched bunch. They've got a Riot Grrl, and girl from an offbeat indie band, and a bass player from a 70's truckin' outfit. The guitarist's slightly out-of-tune delivery, dodgy haircut and dodgier dancing place him firmly in Madchester, and the keyboard player clearly yearns to be in Pulp. And in the middle, like a refugee from an avant-garde chorus line, in black satin romper suit, shocking pink tights and neon-green spangly wristguards is a girl tap-dancing on an amplified box.

They do have a drummer, too, tucked invisibly away at the back of the stage providing a back beat and occasionally doing duelling-banjos-style call-and-response with the tap-dancer.

More than anything, they reminded me of the Go! Team. They don't have quite the same instrument-swapping capacity (though of the 7 people on stage, 4 played guitar, 3 played bass), but they do have the same energy and project the same impression that they're all having a great time. The dancer in particular had the largest and most genuine smile I've ever seen plastered across her face the entire time.

Musically, they're straight-up indie-pop. Lively and exciting, but not that distinctive except for the tap-dancing. Did I mention the tap-dancer ? She's great. Several times they started an acoustic song with just a guitar and one singer. Each time more people wandered back on stage and joined in, making for an interesting build-up from quiet to full-on noise.

I'm not sure that I'm inspired to run out and buy all their albums, but they're definitely the sort of band where you can turn up to a gig and have a great time despite knowing nothing about them. When Venta's new-band check-list is finally adopted as a reviewing standard, they tick pretty much all the boxes (except the "band name on drum" box). They're really a lot of fun live, and anyone in Ireland who can catch the end of the tour should get out and see them and their synchronised dance moves. Jumping up and down shouting "I wanna fuck it up" has never been so much fun.