I Was A Cub Scout |
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The Engine Shed, Lincoln 07 June 2007
Review by Mark Barrett Photos by Tom Cassidy
After witnessing I Was A Cub Scout's, or IWACS's if you'd prefer, disappointing acoustic performance at Lincoln's HMV store recently, in which Todd Marriott's over sentimentality and William Bowerman's Salvation Army tambourine playing never looked or sounded like becoming anything exciting, I was hoping their headline plugged in set at The Engine Shed would do much better in convincing me of the duo's reported promise.
The Engine Shed's main room was halved for the evening, but even with this, the venue still seemed empty with a low turnout on the night. After
Performances such as this won't do IWACS any favours at all. From reading their press about their live shows they, perhaps too simply, like to,''have a really fun time and get people involved'', but all I observed from the duo were complaints, apologies and excuses for what was a disappointingly amateurish show. I hope their debut album shows them in a better light, and certainly their singles have done up to now, but if this live set is anything to go by, it's anything but fun and involved. Although their timing in the market place might be impeccable, there's no escaping the fact that their live performance at The Engine Shed was musically unimportant.
Full size/more photos here
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destroying any anticipation already built by coming on to the stage to unexpectedly sound check, IWACS eventually got on with the show amid much confusion and disorganisation, and what should have been an atmospheric opener was in fact strewn with feedback, broken microphones and William Bowerman visibly struggling behind his flat sounding drum set. However, the quieter keyboard led section did it's best to restore confidence in a nervous start. By the second number the sound difficulties had become less frequent but no less intrusive, and after what sounded like a poor impersonation of The Postal Service things improved musically for the song Part II, but the front man's affected vocal and guitar breakdown with it's lumbering diversion into psychedelia was only rescued by Bowerman's muted crashes. It should be mentioned that Todd Marriott attempted to play his too infrequently delicious sounding guitar with his teeth at one point, perhaps in preparation for their 'Download' festival appearance, but such guitar histrionics and tired routines belong firmly in the past, not in some attempt at English music's bright young future. As Marriott made excuses for himself, including how he couldn't dance as enthusiastically as usual due to having ineptly run himself over earlier, a friend of mine asked me if I thought IWACS might be ''off their heads'', such was the nature of their performance. As their set veered from discordant disasters to awkward apologies, some members of the audience started to make their way to the exits and IWACS finally played their trump cards in the form of the innocently catchy singles I Hate Nightclubs (with it's beautifully dropped half time) and Pink Squares (did I hear a mumbled reference to Battenburg Cake?) as the finale of their brief set. The crowd didn't ask for an encore, so they didn't get one, and were left wondering if what they'd just seen had been worth the time, effort and money.This page was last updated Monday, 11 January 2010
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