The Cooper Temple Clause

One of MTV's live televised Five Night Stand gigs....

The end before the beginning...

...cause after Vex Red's refined power and The Cooper Temple Clause's visceral noise barrage Super Furry Animals seemed like marionettes...even though they had a LOT of their hardcore fanbase at the gig, cheering wildly... a bit of a puppet show, one that went on FAR too long... nice songs, but a bit middle aged.... nice says it all.... at one point I thought they were going to pull the gig out of the hat when they started kicking ass.. a new song called 'Golden Retriever', speedy beat combo punky vignettes like like 'Give Me Magic' my adrenaline levels starting to rise...then....

instead of ending they went off into quadrophonic sound system bollocks.. self indulgent wank...

Earlier I had been thinking of how Vex Red and The Cooper Temple Clause could share their secrets in the dressing room and both go from being very good bands to being INCREDIBLE bands...

Vex, benefitting from the fantastic sound system at Ocean (this is by FAR the best venue in London) sounded AWESOME... take 'Can't Smile' for instance.. the first verse.. so much space.... Terry's insistent vocals with a pinch of guitar subtly subverted by Keith's synth, then Ben's pounding drum'n'bass backbeat comes in like a 21 gun salute screaming dance to my tune, then Nick and Ant kick their guitars into gear ...let off a volley of shellfire... and I've just been run over by a steam roller... It sounded MONSTER... all the arrangement finesse, the dynamics.. all here to see, the way they were always meant to sound...

...The Cooper Temple Clause... Last time I saw them was at Brixton Academy, and the sound was abysmal. Like Vex, they benefitted from Ocean's sound system... everything was as clear as a bell... and my blood pressure went up a million notches as the band tore out their hearts and laid them out on a platter, Ben commanded the stage while Dan ripped it up and spat it out ...reminding me of the crazy inferno of Sonic Youth, blowing out my eardrums (literally, too!!!- Very LOUD!)... at the end I was feeling like I'd been in a wind tunnel...

But...

...if Vex Red could just let go in the way that The Coopers did... lose the backing track and quit dancing to the tune of a machine... dance to YOUR tune guys.... let go.. inject some danger... Right now, when a song starts I know EXACTLY what is going to happen and WHEN, and I hate that predictability in a live show... fuck your shit up, gentlemen...eviscerate and dominate....

...if The Cooper Temple Clause could just sharpen their sound up and focus it in the way that Vex do... the raw power is there for all to see, but I felt they needed more contrast in their live show and more orchestration behind the chaos...

Both bands were brilliant tonight... but, despite both bands being on major labels, it seemed like two sides of a divide... on the one side 'art' bands and on the other, bands with ambition. In my ideal world a band would be both.