Monday 24 May 2010

Shapes + Grown Ups at the Flapper 23/05/2010

Despite it being an extremely warm Sunday evening there is still a reasonable turn-out for tonight's show in the warm underbelly of the Flapper. Turning up slightly later than anticipated (it was an early kick-off) I manage to catch half of Bronze Medals' set. I don't know if they were having an off-night or if the sound just wasn't doing them justice, but tonight they didn't seem as full of vim as they had last time I caught them at the Adam & Eve. Perhaps the heat had taken it out of them? That said, they stand head and shoulders above a lot of local bands for their ingenuity, surmised in set-closer 'I Lost the Map', which has become one of my favourite tracks of the year thus far.

Next to the stage were City Hero. Whilst they weren't necessarily a bad band, I can't say that the Birmingham three-piece left me wanting more. There were brief moments where interesting riffs came into the fore, reminiscent of old-school Deftones. However where progress was made on the heaviness front, the band cancelled themselves out by lapsing into a, well, cliche and cheesy rock sound that does absolutely nothing for me. I know some people like Nickelback, and there is a place for that gravelly-throated alt-rock, but that place is not in my record collection.

Into It. Over It. acted as a solid counter-balance to the acts proceeding him, and to Grown Ups who would follow. His acoustic discourses on subjects as diverse as friends, love, and American Football went down brilliantly, and his chirpy sense of humour was almost as good as his music. Favourite comment of mine was his thoughts on how Britain doesn't understand the term "bummed' which he uses often, and has had people on the tour mistake his feeling sad as reference to anal sex, which I'm sure is not always a good thing when you're thousands of miles from home. My only regret is that I didn't pick up his 52-track double album, recorded over the course of a year (1 track a week, folks), as he was a lovely guy. I complimented his brilliant humour and he said it was due to watching a lot of British sitcoms with his parents when growing up. It was very pleasing to find a Yank who gets English comedy, so Evan Weiss, I salute you.

The main pull for tonight has to be Chicago's Grown Ups. Recently signed to Big Scary Monsters, and with debut More Songs currently gracing my stereo, I knew that these boys would be an absolute riot. They remind me a lot of Hot Water Music, with their infectious pop-punk hooks skittering along in reckles abandon, with the songs usually cumilating into a fantastical conclusion almost as soon as they've started. The only negative I found this evening was that it did seem a bit too loud, meaning that the vocals were often obscured by the guitars which is a real shame as it was the combination of the vocals and the guitar hooks that originally drew my attention. I was also a little sad about how short their set was - but then their record only clocks in at just over 30 minutes. I really hope these guys come back soon as they are a fantastic, summery punk-rock outfit who deserve your attention. Why not go download their first EP, Songs, over on If You Make It - you won't regret it.

Last up tonight are local boys Shapes who I've written about before on these pages. It's pretty much text book this evening, and despite the crowd becoming decidedly smaller (it's a Sunday night after all) the band plough through their set of juggernaut riffs and unexpected time changes like the prog-metal supremeos they've grown into. A couple of new songs were thrown in for good measure this evening, including one which sounded like it may have been called something to do with AC/DC, but my ears may have tricked me. Closing with live favourite 'You Butcher!' Shapes brought to an end a diverse evening of music. Whilst they are always a great act to watch, for me this evening was all about Grown Ups, who were brilliant and are well worth your investigation.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Mystery Jets at the Custard Factory 06/05/2010

This was an odd one. Apparently Chevrolet are launching a new car, called a Spark, and to celebrate this they enlisted Mystery Jets to perform a 5 date "unscheduled" tour around the country. The cities that the tour stopped at was decided by an online poll on the Chevrolet website, with the pollsters receiving tickets to go along to their chosen city if it won. Now, I only know this with hindsight after some brief researching on the internet. On the night however there was little explanation as to what was going on at all. Kicking off at around 7.30 on a Friday night is not normal practice, and myself and a couple of pals tried to get in (our names convieniently didn't show up on the guestlist) as Mystery Jets were already starting their set. Luckily we were allowed in regardless (breaking the illusion of exclusivity) we dashed into a relitively empty Space 2. This seems to be an ongoing problem with these sponsored shows: no-one knows about them. The same happened at the xBox Reverb show I went to last year. So here's the scene: Mystery Jets are playing on a stage over to the right, there are about 80-100 people standing around in the middle, and to the left are a couple of ugly cars that have been given a "cool" paint job and had a DJ booth installed on the top. I'm confused. However, Chevrolet were obviously aware this would happen and had provided a free bar (maximum of two drinks) for the punters. I got myself a cold one and tried to shut out the vehicular distractions and watch Mystery Jets do their thing.

It was clear from the outset that tonight the band's focus would be on showcasing their new material from forthcoming third album, Serotonin. Opening with latest single 'Flash A Hungry Smile' shows that the Jets are happy to continue on their excursion down the indie pop road, and this song will certainly be one that follows you around this summer. I hadn't been that much of a fan of Twenty One but you can't deny the infectious nature of tracks like 'Young Love' and 'Two Doors Down', the latter of which got the crowd going the most, albeit a near-static bop. It saddens me that they don't play material from the first LP these days, seeing how that was a fave of 2006 (corr, that long ago?), but the new material did enough to leave me suitably impressed, especially 'Waiting for a Miracle', that was a rather tasty cut. So, on walking back out onto Digbeth High Street at a little after 8.30pm with the sun still somewhere in the sky did I want to go out and buy a Chevrolet? No. But I will be keeping an eye out for Mystery Jets over the summer as they are a band made for the festivals, a sunny pop band who have got the knack of writing catchy hooks, but not selling cars.

photo via facebook.com/sparktour