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Club Night Review
Saturday 4th April at the Lexington
Bands: The Ghost Frequency, La Shark, O Children
Rambling – now that’s a healthy hobby. People don’t ramble
enough. This country has great rural landscapes. So why don’t people ramble
that often? Because the paths trudged out over many years by these active
hobbyists damages the wild look of the areas they travel to appreciate. That’s
right, even the act of walking is bad for the environment, which is why you’ll
find responsible green types listening to top-notch live music at the Lexington
on the first Saturday of the month – conveniently forgetting how the speakers
and lights are powered, or how they got there in the first place.
On this Saturday’s event the three bands were of a
particularly high standard. Things kicked off with the moody 80s throwback
quartet O Children. These days that’s a very vague way of describing a band –
everyone harks back to the 80s, but O Children do it very well indeed. On
stage, they look and behave like an emaciated Smiths with tight jeans – the
lead singer with his moping and posturing, and the Johnny Marr-style shyness
and fashionably-unfashionable haircut of the guitarist.
But it’s the singer, Tobias, with his ridiculously tall,
angular frame and baritone vocals who dominates proceedings. O Children are
simple, catchy and commanding. Obvious comparisons to Joy Division have been
made, but there are elements of Depeche Mode, Nick Cave (their name comes from
one of his songs) and even some Talking Heads.
Of course this all enforces the fact that, despite claims of
a varied musical palette from the 70s to the modern day, O Children are very
much of the 80s. There are times when they rise above this – when their
downbeat style creates songs like ‘Fault Line’, which is tense, emotive and
soars at the end, and all purely from the variation of the vocals as the
instruments happily play a simple, constant retro backdrop. It’s at these times
when they sound like the 80s with 19 years of reflection, but that’s the
exception rather than the rule, which is that they follow the decade’s style a
little too faithfully.
It would be interesting to see what they will do when this
phase in pop dies out in the next several years, as they have natural talent
and charisma, and above all an eye for quality in their work, as their songs
are consistently adroit throughout.
Next came the antithesis of O Children, with their uber-cool
look fronted by a dark, massive, brooding figure. La Shark’s lead singer has
Geronimo in his name. He’s a tiny pale Londoner who looks like he’s descended
from a long lineage of chimney sweeps and Lee Bowyer. All that and he sings
like a male Edith Piaf and wears a shiny golden blazer. In fact the whole La
Shark look and feel is deliberately odd in that typical student ‘look at me,
I’m real different cos I ain’t scared of no one and I’m never gonna bow down to
society’s conformist dogma’ type thing.
They proffer eccentric indie pop in that quirky manner of
Wild Beasts and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, only they take it further. Geronimo’s
intensity in their live performance is convincingly symptomatic of an unhinged
mentalist, and there’s a genuine uneasiness as you realise they take their
slightly comical attire and overacting really very seriously indeed.
But in the end it comes down to the music, which is mostly
top-notch. Songs like ‘Memory Lane’ and the excellent and the mostly French
‘Hotel Chevalier’ are catchy, clever, and quirky without foregoing a good tune.
They have a knack of composing songs that don’t necessarily start off well, but
are so strangely sung they hold your attention long enough for a memorable
chorus or an interesting melody to come by and make you bob your head from side
to side and smile like a hyperactive child who was crudely lobotomised by way
of a knitting needle up the nostrils in order make them shut the hell up. Some
parts are a little ‘unpredictable’ just for the sake of it, and a few of their
quieter moments are more miss than hit, but that’s nit-picking at what was a
striking performance by a very entertaining band.
But La Shark appeared sedate compared to the Ghost
Frequency, who lit up the Lexington with immediate electro-punk that was
gratefully light on the electro. The five piece boasted two guitarists and
someone on the keys who for the most part played it like a unique sounding bass
(in much the same way as One Day As A Lion). The drummer excelled – impressing
in the usually undemanding role of a punk drummer. The Ghost Frequency are
tight, hook-laden, and possess two factors to their success that are somewhat
missing in modern powerpop/punk bands: consistency in quality throughout their
set, and a sense of not overdoing things.
A problem with the band is that they play an edgy brand
music without the menace needed to pull it off. This is mainly because lead
singer is a bit of a weak link, in that he looks like Dick & Dom’s
lovechild, and sings like the lovechild of Dom and Dick & Dom’s lovechild
in some weird all-male procreating incestuous family. Certainly, the fact that
he thought his string-thin arms would look good covered in tattoos was a
warning sign that he had the vocal power of an asthmatic infant with throat
polyps.
As they are young (and therefore influenced by some terrible
things through no fault of their own), there is, it has to be said, a slight
Linkin Park influence in their live set. But worry not! It’s counterbalanced by
a little At the Drive-In style chaotic speed that is unfortunately missing from
their MySpace playlist.
But again, these things are small flies in the Ghost
Frequency ointment. Their set was superb, they got a mini indie (therefore
civilised) moshpit going, and they impressed the packed crowd immensely. They
are a very good modern punk band, and (although it seems like it should be easy
to get right) that’s a rare thing.
It was yet another successful COG night of mayhem and
merriment, which is why it’s best to limit your hobbies to live music in
exciting venues near Angel tube station, and leave the countryside views for
what they’re really meant for – to have something to look at during dogging
sessions. Until next time,
Muhammad Odeh