LIVE REVIEW: CSS, Portsmouth Pyramids (Date: 20.12.07)

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LIVE REVIEW: We Are Scientists, Southampton University Student's Union (Date: 18.11.07)

Great gigs that stay with you fall into two categories: epic or fun. Arcade Fire, Editors and Muse are epic spectacles that shake you to your very core and leave your bones resonating for an age. Bloc Party, Dirty Pretty Things and Dizzee Rascal are fun. Fun should not be confused with throwaway. These loosen the jaw and relax the bladder. They stun. They throw bodies into spins and send arms-a-flailing. We Are Scientists are of the latter category.

Bouncing on stage with a new drummer and guitarist, who are never really introduced, Keith and Chris promise to “fuck you up!”; by this they bring a little bit of entertainment and learning, and like an episode of Sesame Street where Big Bird is cavity checked by that doughy-eyed mammoth, they deliver. They hit the crowd hard with a lightning rendition of ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’ then flow straight into ‘This Scene Is Dead’, which is slower than its recorded counterpart but is as pounding as an assault of kettle drums. Now comes the banter: WaS seem to have an uncanny ability to be as funny as hell, but only if you’re in on the gag. This doesn’t detract from the understood japes being little nuggets of comedy genius.

After ‘Inaction’ an uneasy stride is taken into unknown territory. The first of the new songs is played for the crowd to get their ears around. Perhaps called ‘Patience’, it echoes Coldplay and is the first indication that maybe this ‘difficult’ second album will be more destined for the coffee table than the dance floor.

Another new one has a new romantic tone. Keys are given more prominence in the new repertoire as the tempo dawdles to an ambient, Rapture-like slow jam. It’s now that you ask yourself, “What’s happened?”

Just as it seems all is lost and the Scientists seem destined to be locked up in the lab to find that secret ingredient of dance indie again, they leisurely thrash out ‘It’s A Hit’, ‘Lousy Reputation’ and ‘The Great Escape’ before coming back on to attack a somewhat disheartened crowd with another new one. This time it’s ‘70s punk, aggressive and just what was needed. Hope is restored and then cemented with ‘Cash Cow’.

“We had to finish on this… because it’s so fucking dance-able!”

Words: Dean Samways

Photo: Peter Hill

LIVE REVIEW: Dizzee Rascal, Southampton University Student's Union (Date: 08.11.07)

In the first year of university there was a big debate, never really settled and costing us a night out: “Is rap music ‘real’ music?” Two friends well versed in the strategies of argument, who, unfortunately for the opposer, were also fans of black music, took the discussion into the early hours. Needless to say my über-indie, whiter-than-white friend was shouted down and mocked until he buckled and compromised, “I only give rap music the time of day if it offers me something more than Fiddy and his gangster musings”.

I’ll hold my hands up: I’m a bigger fan of guitar music than I am UK hip-hop. In fact the last rap album I bought was probably The Sugarhill Gang best of, some five years ago. With Dizzee Rascal though you don’t just get a London MC with a powerful, bass soundtrack; you get a twice-nominated and one-time winner of the Mercury Prize who smashes down genres and musical barriers with a playful grin on his face. Needless to say this is my first gig seeing three guys on a stage with no strings or skins in sight.

Tonight is an assault. The three men on stage, two MCs and one DJ, set the pace for the ecstatic crowd with lightening lyrics splashed on top of tunes that rubbish everything that’s gone before them. The raw, vest-wearing enthusiasm that cannons through the entire set forces Dizzee and friend to take two interludes. The first comes after the Arctic Monkeys collaboration, ‘Temptation’, at which point homage is paid to the Sheffield scenesters with a snip of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ played over the PA followed by some Nirvana and Kaiser Chiefs. The second pause has a jungle theme, with classic cuts played from Dizzee’s days as a D’n’B DJ. All this gives the gig a different feel.

The show leaves me dumbfounded.‘Old Skool’, ‘Sirens’ and ‘Flex’ demonstrate amazing enjoyment in what the Londoner does, and the crowd revel in it. ‘Stop Dat’, ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’ ‘Jus’ A Rascal’ blow everyone away as hands are raised and jumping breaks out. If there was ever a gig that changed a mind about a genre of music, it was this one. and

Words: Dean Samways

Photo: Fabric London Press Website

LIVE REVIEW: Kings of Leon, Bournemouth International Centre (Date: 04.07.07)

Much against the GMCs advice, a pinch of salt should always be administered when a band is heard horribly wooing a crowd with lines like, ‘you’ve been the best crowd ever’, or ‘you guys are amazing’, and even, ‘we’ve done 30 shows now and none of them compare to this one’. Because of this forever-spewing banter from stage to dancefloor, it’s a relief to hear a sincerity normally absent from a rock band’s dialogue as they stand up on their pulpit preaching the sins of rock ‘n’ roll.

Kings of Leon have a reputation that makes one assume they would be void of any such deep seeded earnestness. A reputation lavishly decorated with stories of womanising, alcoholism and generally advocating a lifestyle of excessive bathed in debauchery. As tonight’s gig starts it seems that this very lifestyle may have eroded any such solemnity from the group’s character. At the Bournemouth International Centre, on Independence Day, the Nashville brothers and cousins plough unrepentantly into their set playing three songs without stopping to chat to their public. Just when murmurs start circulating the crowd in the vicious vein of, ‘they’re not going to talk to us are they the bastards?!’, the guitar playing takes an extended break. After the downright dirty chords and filthy melodies of 'King of The Rodeo', Caleb looks up to the some 8,000 people and speaks for the first time in what will turn out to be a surprisingly honest string of comments that sends the crowd into yet louder cheers of appreciation.

“Good evening we are the Kings of Leon”, “I’ve got something to say…Firstly happy fourth of July, and secondly, you guys are honestly the best crowd we’ve played to on this tour”, “Thank you guys for showing us such great respect”, “You know? They all told us that this was an old people’s town but you guys are proving them wrong” and “This is the biggest crowd we’ve ever for and thank you for making it the so special.”

Normally such comments peppering a show are brushed aside as rehearsed, overly gratuitous dribble that falsely heightens the crowd euphoria and is obviously intended only to get the mob jumping an inch higher and miles more joyously. Caleb’s words however, under the modest backdrop of unspectacular lighting and a single plain black banner portraying the smashing light bulb taken from the band’s new album, you can’t argue that the Followill boys’ modesty is anything but heartfelt. However, honest or not and crowd pleasing nuggets of emotion aside, the music remains as grungy, bluesy, dirty and as fantastically violating as the first time you heard the sexual deviation of 'Molly’s Chambers'.

It was written in a recent review of Because Of The Times that Caleb (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jared (bass), Matthew (lead guitar) and Nathan (drums) sound like they are all just trying to make more noise than each other at the detriment of the music. What the review should have said was, yes instruments are being played to melting point but the delightfully deafening din is so carefully orchestrated that each track sounds like Butler and Chassagne of Arcade Fire could have written them. They twist what is known as the Kings of Leon sound from sexy grunge pop into angelic ethereal pieces of minimalist yet rich substance. The drum sequences alternate to texture the fresher, newer songs with a vast landscape of sloping and rolling peaks that intricate guitar melodies march over with a pouting arrogance manifested in the bearded faces of the Southern American guitar heroes. It’s amazing to think that when the four Nashville boys started out in 2000 lead guitarist Matthew was only 18 and yet he was able to string together such complex solos. Tonight his fingers were hard at work again blisteringly tearing up his strings alongside bass lines that ebb and flow almost as hurriedly.

At what Caleb assures the horde is the bands biggest ever gig (assuming that means subtracting festival appearances from the equation), Kings of Leon have finally become a band with a full back catalogue. The 13 new tracks add a rusty but sterilised sound with an eclectic edge to add to all those highly favoured polished pop songs of Youth & Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak. The foursome tease the band with a slower, fresher track like 'True Love Way' that builds and peaks and peaks and peaks and plummets with such amazing grace before throwing down a filthy dance classic like 'Four Kicks'. The KOL collection would seem complete and yet they are only three albums into their illustrious career.

Take new track 'McFearless'. This three minute 11 second pant creamer maybe the closest song to the older, grubbier Kings of Leon pop offerings yet the unparalleled TLC that went into its creation is absent in the earlier material. The Followills send out each contemporary track with a caress lacking in a conceited swagger and heavy in free love. When it’s the turn of 'True Love Way' to receive a south coast airing the band release it with as much love as a mother waving her first born off climbing the school steps for the first time. 'True Love Way' radiates an adorable loving poise as it battles not to peak early and yet deliver it’s message to it’s intended listener about escaping away and finding happiness alone, far from the maddening crowd. The combination of this instant new hit played alongside blatant bone-ing soundtrack 'Spiral Staircase' really shouldn’t work, but when they are both strummed out with no less the same manic filthiness as the first time Milk was pumped out inside a Tennessee music hall, it’s musical arousal.

All this makes the flicking through the band’s history all the more paper cutting fun. Glancing into the future of the band and reflecting on its past, the fluctuation between newly found stringed ecstasy and gritty nailing of classic harmonies continue through the set to it’s conclusion. 'On Call' neighbours 'Milk' and 'Arizona' cuddles up in 'Molly’s Chambers' and new is mixed with old in true aural intoxication.

Of course all this isn’t to say that the Kings have completely abandoned their highly sexed pastoral musical pedigree. When it’s the turn of 'Black Thumbnail' all four band members adopt aggressive stances to lay down some violent instrumentation abuse

Normally only displayed during 'Pistol of Fire'. According to a Rolling Stone interview this song, one of the heaviest on the new record, is about a cousin who had dabble on the wrong side of the law. This anonymous relation was once asked if he thought his ex-wife had a heart to which he apparently replied, ‘Yeah, it's about the size of my thumbnail and black as coal’. This hatred and bitterness for the former spouse is transposed tonight in a ferocious display of testosterone topped with back arching effort in tearing up bass strings and hands so closed around pick-ups on guitar solos that the great welcoming volume and depth of the noise defies what you’re seeing. The display is purely and completely immense.

After announcing the band will be generously putting on fireworks down on the beach and that ‘it’ll be great if you could join us’ the leather clad gang of guitars and skins catapults into a lengthy version of 'Knocked Up'. With a casually raw build up the simplistic drums and bass lines coupled with only a few chords from Matthew tantalise for a final time before raining down heavy drum cycles, erratic lead strings and distant echoic rhythm guitar. Singing about having babies and escaping claustrophobic townships this is a complete escape from the Kings of Leon as we knew them during Youth and Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak. If this comes as unwelcome news it shouldn’t. Progression in any vocation, any walk of life, any back catalogue of music is nearly always a good thing and if the NME interview with Caleb is anything to go by, the Kings will soon have a new LP baby hopefully with all the same electric traits as their last. This can’t be a complete band already…can it?

Words: Dean

Image: Google