For the last time in 2008, Triple School evade me in another lineup change – apparently one of the Phantom Band has a bus to catch, hence their shift to open Sleazys’ NYE party.
No bad thing of course… the 6-piece deliver a droney, Krautrocky set, though with a 4-guitar assault and shy on the synths. Theirs is a bubbling, hook-driven take on the genre, adding their own dancey beats. And, a few surprises as they dip outside their Teutonic comfort zone, including a tune which is surely Native American in origin, the band possessed by the spirit of Chief Hitting Wood as they thud out a percussive beat and a big chorus straight from the American backwoods.
To the ABC then where – as far as we can tell – We Were Promised Jetpacks are clashing with the aforementioned Triple School. A short 20-minute set is rattled out and at first it seems that ‘Quiet Little Voices’ will occupy most of it – a flurry of big choruses, rapid-fire guitar licks, and false endings aplenty. There is time for 3 or 4 more, including newish tune ‘Short Bursts’ which sees singer Adam stand, guitar poised like a machine gun, as he steps back from the mike yet still fills the venue with lusty vocals. Given that the audience are more used to dancing to big standard indie fare and may well see the bands as an interruption in the festivities, they’re well-received, but give it a year and some of tonight’s crowd are likely to be jotting down this act’s name on their NME end-of-year polling form.
However, what The Kids will make of Dananana-aykroyd, as they’re announced, is anyone’s bet, especially as the band will terrorise Kaiser Chiefs audiences in 2009. To these ears – perhaps the only sober pair in the ABC’s vast arena – it seems that there’s something of an onslaught awaiting those tender pop souls. Twin drummers, one who doubles up on additional screaming, acerbic guitars, and a ‘show’ which roughly marries burlesque and rollerball, does not – usually – make for the opening to a night of chart hits. And there’s the taunting of the audience – for those not quite with it, a ‘countdown’ around 11.40 whose inexorable path from 10 – 1 leads to “Happy next song”.
With this being a hometown show there are a few Dans fans in the rapidly-swelling crowd, so what better way than to build a “bridge between audience and band” as Calum and James construct a staircase out of the venue’s red vinyl stools and encourage fans to join them onstage. If this had been the Apollo the bouncers would have wreaked light-to-moderate violence on band and fans, as a succession of girls in party shoes risk serious injury as they cross over the photopit. The staff, perhaps unused to such theatrics, content themselves with looking on mouths agape and wondering if insurance covers them for plummeting revelers.
And what of the music? Deafening in a word, distorted another useful adjective, all big riffs and an onslaught from that twin drummer/duetting combo. There’s the odd tune e.g. ‘Greater Than Symbol’ that shines through as a fight-pop classic, jagged guitars breaking through the chaos, while ‘Pink Sabbath’ is its polar opposite, a demonic knockabout possessed more by the spirit of Entombed than Ozzy.
The staff haven’t completely fallen out with the band, it seems, as they meet Duncan’s request for the disco ball (it’s Europe’s biggest, I understand) to be turned on – apparently ‘Chrome Rainbows’ is a disco ball song, though as it turns out, it’s neither disco or ball, It is however a behemoth of a tune, as is the clapalong ‘Some Dresses’ (possibly, the set has become a flurry of songs) which rounds off the set and the year. Cheerio, 2008… as for 2009? We may just have seen the future.
more Jeptacks, Dans, and stage invasion shots on flickr
James Cadden’s slideshow, as a flickr photoset
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