I remember being really excited about this gig but as soon as I arrive, all of that initial excitement swiftly escapes me. It must be the rain, teasingly pouring down as if to purposely spoil all that excitement. A giant screen streams an advert play list, a mix of trendy music videos and television trailers, over and over and over amid pulsating, run-of-the-mill electronic beats that I do not particularly recognise and fail to place. I grow curious as to what the famous faces in the adverts are saying, what they are selling, but maybe the words don’t matter. Maybe the music just doesn’t matter, either.
Surrounding parties nod in time with The Sunshine Underground’s infectious arena-rattle, but it isn’t the nodding of approval. It’s like a collective response to the sonic equivalent of a dangerously contagious virus. People are confused: the band’s hypnotic raucousness – too reminiscent of stadium anthems and other such commercial playgrounds – imposes a series of mindless taps and unnatural pats on innocent limbs everywhere. I don’t know where I am. A football match? A rugby game? I can’t quite tell.
The chipmunk harmonies of the Klaxons are surprisingly perfect, suspiciously so in fact. These days it’d be strange for a chart-topping pop act to not sing along to background tracks, especially with that annoyingly exhaustive ‘Golden Skans’ hook. The boys sweat out all of their internal organs to spit out an anxiously swaggering sort of set; a blinding, space-age set of stage light apparatuses, blasting rainbows of colour to mirror a mad mass of glow sticks farcically dancing to infinity.
I’m not quite sure the appearance of the bands wildly improved my evening. I’m convinced that a spin of their tunes on a turntable would have been just as effective, maybe more. I would speak more of the actual music, but tonight it just doesn’t matter.
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Klaxons
For fuck's sake
get an umbrella! I wasn't there but have seen the Sunshine Underground a good few times and very much doubt that they were remotely close to be deserving of such a low rating. And poor CSS, airbrushed out of the evening altogether.
Good review
I think this review is spot on. I went to the same gig in Cardiff and I wasn't that impressed by anything to be honest. I have the Klaxon album, and thought I would like to see them live because the album is pretty good.
A great band will be better live than on their album, or thats what I usually expect. But with pop acts this is often not the case. And sadly, the Klaxons fall in to this category. I wish I felt differently at the time, but I couldn't get in to it at all. People were dancing all around me, but these are the same people that won't be listening to this album after a couple of months. As much as they can make you dance a few times on listening, they sadly lack any musical depth.
I thought Sunshine Underground were average at best, CSS put on a good show but every song rolled in to one another, they were all quite similar.
In hindsight, it was never going to be the gig for me. With advertisements fladhing up on the screen for 'Topman', 'Shockwaves', and when the next issue of NME is out. I want to go to a gig to listen to good music, played by musicians. Not go to some fucked up fashion show, presented to me by NME, the best magazine for fickle music listeners
I agree
The crowd were much more lively for The Sunshine Underground than New Young Pony Club, and I definitely got the impression that people wanted them to stay on longer than they did.
A...
CSS review would have been appealing.
Steezy20
I get it, you really like 'Sunshine Underground' and that's fine with me. I didn't say they were bad, I just said they were average. Disagree by all means because it is just my opinion, but a great band to me is a band that can make long-lasting music that you could listen to for year(s) and not bore of it. I don't doubt that they got people dancing, but does that mean that they're music is amazing?
I find it important to seperate the bands that create short-term excitement from those that can offer long-term enjoyment. These often get blurred in the hype that surround most NME love affairs.
I hope they do well for themselves, but I just can't see this 'absolutely phenomenal' band doing much for music. Just my opinion. Mika, on the other hand, WOW!
i'm with you buttmunch
both bands are dire at best. it's like listening to the tail end of the "Shine" compilation records right now.
thank fuck !!!, adult and lcd soundsystem are coming back to show these wannabes how its done...
i agree
with buttmunch and vamos.
the sunshine underground sound too much like hard-hi and they dress like townies. bland as fuck. the sound guy should have been fired that night cause the equalizing between instruments was completely fucked during the CSS set.
.
you, good sir of Buttmunch, bring up a very valid point.
good day.
Idiot.
"I want to go to a gig to listen to good music, played by musicians. Not go to some fucked up fashion show, presented to me by NME, the best magazine for fickle music listeners"
Why on earth did you go the the NME tour presented by 'Shockwaves' then?
Surely you knew what it would be like. And for the record I attended the Newcastle gig and I thought each band was at very least quite impressive; and I'm usually your typical snob.
CSS
will be reviewed in their own right soon.
Thanks guys
I'm pleased to hear that I'm not a lone ranger
RE - Idiot
Hi Boylie. I said I liked the Klaxons album, that's the only reason why I went to the gig. I haven't seen them before so I didn't know what to expect. But I guess I expected more from them than they gave me.
I've never been to an NME gig before. I thought it would be your normal gig, but with four NME loved bands. I honestly did not expect such an onslaught of advertisements and marketing campaigns. At the end of the day I went there to give it a chance and listen to some new bands, and I as very disappointed and pissed off with the whole thing. I think I have the right to try something out and slag it off If I thought it was shit, surely
The only thing I did expect pre-gig, was a fashion show, and it was fucked.
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