Millionaire

I've not seen Millionaire before, but I loved Tim Vanhamel's previous band, the Evil Superstars. Tim's strange punky moves and the dislocated Nicolas Cage swagger of their lead singer, Mauro Pawlowsky*, made the 'Superstars live show, and along with fellow Belgians, dEUS, they were doing brilliant and original angular spiky groovy rock while Britain had it's head up it's arse discussing who was better out of Liam or Damon.

Forward to the present, and Millionaire tonight possessed all of the visceral raw power of vintage Queen Adreena, and all of the intricacy and intelligence of Muse and The Mars Volta. Sometimes they were really heavy and driving, sometimes syncopated like Beefheart, sometimes hardcore punk, sometimes groovy like the funk. However cleverly assembled it was though, the music never felt self indulgent. Keep a fat groove going and you have an amazing amount of freedom to experiment... perhaps the single secret they share with Prince. No matter what craziness went on, the audience's heads never stopped bobbing, and the grins never subsided. Millionaire were a much more primal and fiery live experience than the band they are most often compared to, the Queens of The Stone Age, even comparing them to the 'Queens before Nick Oliveri's departure, and from my point of view, after an overdose of clichéd frontman-speak at Leeds this year, it was cool to see a band who weren't aiming to be or trying to behave like arena rockers. Tonight, Millionaire were angry, powerful and energetic but dead cool in a quirky hard-to-replicate way. Despite not having heard the new album, I imagine the recorded versions of these songs must feel very different... at least I hope so, because I can't imagine how you could commit this kind of live show to record.

This is why people should bother getting out of the house and going to gigs. It was a pure adrenaline rush, and you really had to be_ there to understand. Ironically, the next time they seem to be playing in the UK is as support to the Foo Fighters in, erm... an _arena, namely Earl's Court. Be interesting to see how they tackle that kind of cavernous space and see how it compares to last night's sweat-soaked box room of furious riffola