“Welcome”
a sign should state on the door “Welcome to the parade
of terrible
band names”. Never has a bill seen a more dastardly
set of band names since
‘Butthole Surfers’, ‘Anal Beard’
and ‘British Sea Power’ may or may not have
appeared together. My Awesome Compilation (no, no matter
how hard you think
about it that just doesn’t make sense for a moniker),
Spitalfield (what? a
field of spit?) and Fallout Boy (a very minimal character
in The Simpsons,
hmmm impressive.) all are terrible band names. Fact. Anyway.
Moving on...
Plain and simple tonight is not a classic show, The music
tonight will
barely be memorable next month never mind next year. To
a great pacifist,
tonight could prove what is wrong with the modern take
on rock music today.
3 competent bands attempting to ride the gravy waves of
the emo/pop punk
trend like Surfers, but alas ending up coming across like
Buttholes.
My Awesome Compilation kick off proceedings with their
average take on music
in general. To be honest it could be The Holiday Plan,
Colour Of Fire or any
number of bands on stage right now, their sound is so
indistinguishable.
Even with added use of keyboard in this default emo band
#5786876 MAC fail
to impress. Even worse they don’t opt to play their
cover of The Smiths
‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ which
is miles better than anything
they could write alone. On this performance My Awesome
Compilation don’t
deserve to step into the UK minor leagues never mind the
majors.
Similar can be applied to Spitalfield, who take a more
abrasive take on emo
but don’t go far enough and end up stagnating in
the middle of nowhere. Like
Norwich. To be fair, as the band repeat over and over
this is their first
ever trek to our green and pleasant shores so a break
can be allowed this
time but that excuse won’t hold up very well for
very long. I’m doubtful
that’s a real excuse anyway as they repeat over
and over the same song
until it all tamely melts into one and you lose any will
to live (no emo
jokes please). Strangely when they go a bit pop-punk for
the final two
songs their sound clicks more into place and the hooks
arrive just in time
but its still too late to save the set. Poor.
The pendulum swings in the balance for Fallout Boy then.
Could they live up
to their superhero billing or, as their actual namesake
suggests, be the
Robin to some much better band somewheres Batman. *sigh*
it’s the later. I’m
not a Fallout Boy fan per se but I like their peers so
assumed they may have
something about them. They really don’t. The set
starts off lively enough
then slowly dies down until a standstill is the order
of the day. Props to
the fan in the Batman costume though (although you did
milk it a bit too
much fella) at least someone who made it onto the stage
made an effort. The
problems could possibly be traced to the full time bassist
being absent and
so the Spitalfield man stepped in but its still a huge
shock to everyone in
the audience when vocalist Patrick Stumph announces after
around 7 songs “We
don’t know any more”. Your in a band! It’s
your job to learn songs fool!
What else do you DO all day!?!?. Lazy. The encore consists
of a solo
performance by said vocalist and then a ‘no different
to rest of set’
closer.
They leave, the crowd leaves. Some go to the aftershow
party. Others go home
thoroughly disappointed. If danger calls and you need
musical relief for
gods sake. Do NOT call Fallout Boy.
ramz
