Original bands, original music from Lincoln & Beyond

The Kabeedies + The Idlers + Green For Go

Wednesday, 09 July 2008

Tower Bar - The Engine Shed, Lincoln

09 May 2008

Review by Tom Cassidy

Photos by Pete

Another night, another desolate venue. That was the first worry on entering the Tower Bar section of The Engine Shed which had been cunningly (and impressively) decked out as a venue.

Luckily it filled up with a sizeable crowd before the first band and Nottingham’s Green For Go played to an enthusiastic bunch.

Quite where they mustered the enthusiasm from, however, is another question. In a nutshell, Green For Go are Hard-Fi lite. They take all the charmlessness of the chart pestering joke of a band and throw in a touch of amateurism to make things that little more upsetting to witness. They say their roots are in dub and ska but there was nothing that makes either of those genres great on display here. Expecting at the very least dub style bass, instead they deliver either bland and plodding or horrendously loud and low register synth bass, but only between songs for some reason. Everything about the set follows this trend, none of the parts are convincing or have any real purpose other than to create something that resembles a song. Still, the crowd seem to enjoy it, it sounds like something they know I suppose.

Now, to consider it without being an esoteric, self-ritcheous quasi-critic; it’s Friday night, people are out to relax and enjoy themselves. There’s a band on, they sound alright – all is well.

All is very well indeed for The Idlers fans who turned up to dance and sing along, as well as for the people new to the hard-working, multi-stickering ( in the city you’re never more than 3 feet away from a rat or an Idlers sticker, probably) adult-indie darlings of Lincoln. Singer Joe began his address to the people by apologising and explaining that his equipment was fraught with problems. It wasn’t noticeable to the casual listener though, especially as all the sound was drenched in their usual reverb-heavy style, which was doubled when banded around every inch of the already echoey venue.

Beginning the set with two mid-paced non-starters, the set soon picked up and again all was well.

Alan Partridge and fantastic indie bands. When I think of Norwich they’re the first things that spring to mind. There’s a fine heritage of brilliant 7” artists from “the rump of England” and The Kabeedies are the latest to sign their name on that particular dressing room. After seeing their frantic set at The Cell a few months ago their arrival to the stage was eagerly awaited. Tonight’s gig, being a slightly larger room and a slightly thinner crowd, could have lost some of the magic that made their Cell show so compelling but from the first note of their perfectly too short first song it was clear that it doesn’t matter where they are, they’re going to do their thing and their thing is always going to be great.

It’s the simplicity that makes them; they are 4 young people making just the sort of fun, exciting and immediate music young people should make. Surf-tinged indie through-and-through pop gems bound from the speakers as all four members throw themselves into the performance and their personalities shine through. The three-vocalled assault works perfectly as every member works equally as a front-person and singer Katie has all the makings of a star in indie circles. As with any good band, toward the end of the set it’s hard to tell the hard core fans and the converts apart as dancing and smiles sporadically break out around the room. Their new single ‘Lovers Ought To’ is plugged and played, but it’s possibly the bubble-gum pop tones of ‘Petit Filous’ and accompanying dance actions from the band that’s the song of the night.

The set is short and sweet, like youth – something these four folk seem to be making the most of. There’s plenty of time to make dull, plodding, gloomy bore-rock etc. when you’re older.

Tom Cassidy

More pics at www.shine.clara.co.uk/gigs webspace.

Band Websites:

The Kabeedies
The Idlers
Green For Go

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