Econoline

It’s strange: to look at the four people on stage, shuffling nervously into the positions they’ll maintain for the next thirty minutes, you’d think this was their first-ever show before an audience of paying punters, past ‘gigs’ in front of sympathetic friends and family still fresh in their minds. Such thoughts couldn’t be further from the truth, though: this is it, as it were; the final countdown to the last note this four-piece will play together. It’s Econoline’s party, and they’ll cry if they want to.

They don’t, thankfully; instead, the London-based indie-rockers - whose career stalled rather as their second album, This Band Isn’t Funny Anymore, hit the production skids back in 2003 for whatever reason - knock out what's almost a greatest hits-cum-highlights set. Only now is said record being released, by the very same people that are putting this night on; this, then, is the returning of the favour: the nearest-to-original line-up restored for a single night, bass and drums back alongside guitars that wail and moan but that most of all simply rock.

There are a couple of spectators sitting directly in front of the stage, their gaze unfaltering throughout the proceeding performance; Econoline, though, rarely meet the stares afforded them, instead focusing on making tonight right. Such an event needs to be smooth; memories need to stay with these assembled fans for the future, as another such reunion is unlikely in the extreme, despite the release of the aforementioned record. Songs that seem new to many but old to the band are delivered effectively and received warmly: ‘Sex Tips For Losers’ and previous seven-inch release ‘Go Team!’ standout, but it’s the calls for older material that ripple about the venue with the most gusto.

They deliver, rewarding the patience of those that have travelled for this one-off (and people have, believe me). ‘I’m Plagued’, the band’s second proper single taken from their debut Music Is Stupid (detecting a theme in these album titles at all? It’s like this band was born to self-destruct with minimal fuss), is a rampant indie-rocker, saturated in lo-fi sizzle and sparkling like the very finest examples produced on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s the closing ‘EmV’ that sets hearts fluttering, though – a slow-burner of no little excellence, the song shifts like desert sands before the grains combine into a single, sky-scraping wall of sound, only to crash down, burying us all.

And then, the last note, prolonged and poignant. No encore. A few goodbyes. A few handshakes and pats upon backs. In a way Econoline were long broken up, at least so far as this live unit goes (the name plays on as a stripped-down pair), but this closure is, frankly, a little sad. They might’ve been keen to stress otherwise, but Econoline really never were guilty of producing stupid music, and nor was their band a particularly funny one in a derogatory sense. It’s with absolute sincerity that each member is wished the best, in whatever they do next…

_Photograph by Rachel Silver Rocket

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