Great Bear

In deepest, darkest needle-strewn Kings Cross lies the preposterously named Water Rats “Theatre”. I doubt you could fit Punch and Judy in this place, let alone a full blown dramatic troupe – theatregoers rarely have to stand elbow to elbow supping Red Stripe from a plastic beaker and trying to un-stick their feet from the floor, not even in Shakespeare’s time…

There’s something compellingly dramatic about Koogaphone though. Maybe it’s Julie’s odd but powerful voice, soaring throughout the venue, sorry ‘auditorium’, like Bonnie Tyler and Kate Bush come over all riot grrl. Or maybe it’s vampiric guitarist Nick, dividing his time between his Gibson SG and Pulp-via-the-Stranglers keyboards. Either way, these psycho-sexual tales, veering between caterwauling femme-punk and swaggering indie anthems packed with chunky power chord guitars are delivered with a knowing sense of the theatrical that tonight only occasionally veers over in the genuinely unhinged. Catch ‘em later on when the wine flows more freely and I’ll wager they can do real frightening just as well as creepy…

Great Bear are a much more reassuring prospect. If they’re gonna scare anyone, say for non-payment of a loan or drug-debt, it’s gonna be with a good honest claw-hammer to the knuckles and not “some fackin’ David Lynch cobblers, It’s all fackin’ bollocks, aight Bruv?” Such a geezerish slant runs through the music as well. From the mod-pop momentum of opener ‘You think you love me’ to the bubblegum ska stomp of ‘Once upon a time’, Great Bear inhabit a blokey London world where Blur drop all the art-school bollocks and Supergrass ‘have a shave and learn to dress with a bit of class, young fellar’.

Though the bouncy stuff’s by far the most fun, their epic indie balladeering is equally adept. Shot through with ragged CSN&Y harmonies, numbers like ‘Easy come easy go’ and ‘Water on the brain’ again recall ‘the ‘Grarse’, clearly a band dear to Great Bear’s heart. In his white suit Jack Sandham looks like the bastard offspring of Del Boy and Scarface. When he whips a trumpet out for ‘Paperboy’, he seems more like some lost member of Madness wandering accidentally into the 21st century… So, a fun band with a slew of great tunes, watch out for them breaking kneecaps round your way soon.