THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE + THE BANDITS.
AT YORK FIBBERS. 11/ 07/ 02.
The night started with us turning up to the venue and been made to pay the ridiculous entrance fee of �10. I was expecting to pay around �7 at the most. Ah well. I was determined not to let it spoil my night. The Electric Soft Parade did that. Ok, that�s abit harsh.
They were really, really good, just not as good as last time we saw them at the same venue back in February. They had obviously been partying hard the night before after supporting David Bowie at the Move Festival. Tonight it had clearly taken its toll on them. They put very little effort into their performance and just couldn�t seem to be assed. They obviously thought that they were way too good for the likes of York. I got the impression that they didn�t really wanna be there for this special one off date that they were using as a warm up to their T In The Park and Witness Festival appearances.
They began with B-side �Broadcast� before singing �Start Again�, �There�s A Silence� and �Stay Where You Are�. Alex then introduced �Empty At The End� by making some comment about it only getting to number 39 in the chart. At this point most bands would have thanked their fans for getting them into the chart at all but not The Electric Soft Parade; they�re way to superior.
They continued with �Red Balloon�, �Moodswing� and �Biting The Soles� before missing out a song even though it was written in on their set list. They concluded with their 15 minute epic version of �Silent To The Dark� just before which they made it clear we would be wasting our time cheering for an encore because there wasn�t gonna be one. They were too tired to continue apparently even though they sang just 9 songs.
I spoke to the band afterwards and they were really quite arrogant, especially Alex and Tom who don�t seem to like any competition at all. They slagged off several of my favorite bands including Haven, The Cooper Temple Clause, The Manics, The Hives, Oasis, REM and many more, far to many to remember and list for you.
Top of their hate list are Hoggboy who recently supported them. The reason for hating them is because when they shared a dressing room with them, Hoggboy stole their beer! Oh dear! Alex hates The Reindeer Section with a passion too simply because his ex-girlfriend likes them. How pathetic. I asked him if I could have his Thomas The Tank Engine knitted hat but he said I couldn�t because it�s �his favorite item in the whole world! Anyway, the band also speculated that Vex Red had been dropped by their record company but weather or not that is true I have no idea.
ESP are an amazing bunch of musicians who have some really good songs but as people, certainly Tom and Alex really need to stop licking their own asses, realize that they aren�t the only good band in the world and just lighten up abit I guess.
Support for the night came from new The Coral style band The Bandits who are scarily like their Liverpool counter parts. It was one of their first ever gigs but you couldn�t tell. They made it look easy. Their performance was very slick.
BY MR MARTYN. JULY 2002. |