I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about this gig. Did the bands rock hard? Well, yes. Was that a good or a bad thing? I don’t really know. This is odd to only have two bands on the bill, but Leeds based band, The Music, play a set long enough to cover for three opening acts. The Vines were in rare form, as I hear they sometimes can just come out, play and walk off. The crowd surprised me, of course there were the younger, “hip” crowd who are into all the “definite article” bands (The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes etc). There were also a lot of older people in attendance, a lot of beers in hand and headbanging, perhaps trying to “dig” this new rock n’ roll explosion to cling to their youth. Aren’t I the cynic?
I noticed on the Webster’s messageboards that The Music have been dubbed as the band with the worst name in history. Well, I admit I don’t believe the name is too creative, but they are a decent band. I downloaded a few mp3s prior to the show, and didn’t actually think they had a vocalist, but I learned that it was probably just really bad mixing. Their live show was entertaining, they play superbly live, but had no stage presence whatsoever. The singer danced like a lost hippie on a bad trip. The rest of the band was pretty much glued to the stage. I would have really enjoyed them, they had really well crafted rock songs with a jam band feel, but they played too long! I really wanted to kill myself at one stage…the thing was I thought I got there late because they had already started, but they had much more to go! I know that The Vines picked them to do this tour with them…but come on, get a band that’s a little less mind-numbing.
The Vines were actually very good, and pretty much what I expected. One thing people, NO MORE STROBE LIGHTS! My favorite Vine’s songs are their heavier ones, however I spent the time during those songs with my eyes closed. Luckily, I could turn my attention to their softer material because of this. The Vines have basically two kinds of songs, rock (reminiscent of Nirvana) and soft (reminiscent of Brit Pop). The hits like “Outtatheway”, “Get Free” and “Highly Evolved” were played so early in the set, I thought the show would end up 20 minutes long. It wasn’t it dragged on.
I’ve got two items of constructive criticism for the band. The cover of “Miss Jackson” should be tossed…Craig’s voice screeching that song live is atrocious. The second…don’t wear your own band’s T-shirt on stage. And don’t cut off the sleeves when you’re too skinny to be wearing it like that! The show still would have completely rocked me if there were no strobe lights, that was the worst part for me, I can live with the other things.
Of course, by the end of the set, it was time to smash things up! Some see this as an even more blatant Nirvana rip-off. I personally don’t care. People smashed their instruments long before Kurt did. It’s still funny to hear people call Craig Nicholls Kraig Cobain! The highlight of Craig attacking the drums for me was the fact that he actually managed to chop off half of his Stratocaster’s headstock off. You music heads know what I mean. The band was just recently kicked off of the Jay Leno show for smashing things up during…SOUNDCHECK! Give it up lads, it’s soundcheck…no one care how cool you’re being.
