As a rule I normally never shoot the support bands at the Brixon Academy. I have seen some great support acts over the past 12 months, The Twang, The Courteeners and Biffy Clyro have all opened for mainline acts however the lighting and sound tends to be terrible. Also take in account the three song no flash rule which makes the exercise virtually pointless. As tonight was the NME tour featuring 4 acts all of whom have had considerable press I thought (wrongly) that the gig would be like a mini festival with great lighting. How wrong I was.
The first band to open was The Ting Tings. Opinion on this band is really divided most of the newspapers view them as a gimmick and focus on Katie White’s apparent lack of musical talent. The other camp, so to speak, think that they are excellent. I personally am in the second camp. I think Katie is full of charisma, is sassy, stylish and is actually very talented. They write catchy three minute pop songs which could appeal to a very wide audience. They single “Great DJ” is my favourite single of the year however I guess it’s still only February.
The second band on the bill was “Does if offend you…Yeah!”, well with a bloody stupid name like that actually you do! I personally think the Nu-rave genre has run its course. 2007 will be a year that will be remembered by records from The Klaxons, CSS, Shit Disco, Test Icicles however DIOYY don’t actually do anything different, new or even exciting. The nu rave scene now reminds me of the “old rave” scene in the early 1990’s. Loads of bands exploded onto the scene in 1991 however few had staying power. In fact the only Rave bands who sold albums in any significant numbers were The Utah Saints (remember them), KLF, The Shamen and The Prodigy and out of them The Prodigy were the only act to develop past their first album and build up a sizable live following. DIOYY are ok however don’t expect anything different or dare I say intelligent from them.
Third up were the hotly tipped Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. Again JL has been cited as the big breakthrough act of 2008 however i thought that they were really average. Maybe I saw a bad gig however I thought their songs were very mediocre and JL himself came across as nervous and uncomfortable. That surprised me as his performance as an actor in Peep Show was brilliant. I have not heard any of their records so I’ll reserve judgement on them.
The Cribs who were the headlining act were superb. Undoubtedly one of the best new bands around The Cribs have come a long way in the past year. The new album “Mens needs needs whatever” is an excellent record however their live performances really are something else and well worth catching. I heard recently that Johnny Marr is going to be collaborating/producing them which should be interesting to say the least. 10/10!
Written by John Rahim