Mountain Men Anonymous

Once I learnt Frankie Machine were playing Upstairs @ The Garage as part of the Silver Rocket club, I HAD to be there in order to lose my live virginity to the machine. And with The Warm Jet's first live appearance since the Reading Festival 1998 and the much acclaimed Mountain Men Anonymous, you can only imagine my excitment as we waited in the cold queue in Highbury for doors to open.

For the first act, Francis Albert Machine has recruited two friends to help him out. The set includes new single '54th and 3rd' alongisde tracks from the debut EP 'Why Are You?'. Each song is delievered beautifully elegantly, but tragically manages to become background music to the incessant talking of the crowd. One day they WILL understand.

Following a brief interlude of class tunes (not like the rubbish usually adorning the decks of the Barfly) the The Warm Jets greet us. They've obviously undergone a line-up change and treat the crowd to a set of wholly new material except 'Never Never'. The set may be new, but quite frankly nothing has changed for the better in the Warm Jet's world. The songs remain your standard verse-chorus stylee, but less catchy than those of old which is shown by the rapturous reception to 'Never Never' and disappointed toilet talk. The Warm Jets seem to ooze energy on stage but oddly enough it falls flat. Admittedly it was a small comeback gig; small enough that we can all erase it from memory given time (and maybe councilling in some cases).

Finally for the night's entertainment, Mountain Men Anonymous. As the four take their seats it has to be noted that Lorna has one of the coolest guitars ever (only if you class "cool" as being red, spangly with pictures of the power puff girls on!). Not knowing quite what I was expecting not having heard any of the band's stuff prior, I was quite astounded. In hindsight most tracks did adopt the old favourite quiet-loud format, with more emphasis fortunately on the loud. Obviously Mogwai comparisons would be easy to throw in without neccessarily being correct as the main similarity is purely that both bands are entirely engrossing. Alongisde the musical assault ending with ten minutes of feedback and an empty stage, Mountain Men Anonymous are a visual assault. The way the band, Sam in particular, rock on their chairs looking mildly possessed (not unlike Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes) could teach * The Warm Jets* a thing or two about how to pass enthusiasm to the audience. And all this climaxes in broken strings and an attempt to trash the stage leaving just the feedback to linger before the cheers can break out.

Not really what I was expecting at all, but a blinder nonetheless.