DOGS @ 93 Feet East

CEKI mini fest charity event in aid of Cancer Research.

Fringey quite likes gigs, and sometimes its good to know that you’re in for a guaranteed treat. Ever since we went to see DOGS at the 100 club they’ve been consistently good and we know that Johnny Dogs will give it up for us each and every time. This time it was for CHARITY! An all day mini fest of various bands based in London - hurrah!

We arrived late, but just in time to see MOBROWN do their thing, not exactly what we were expecting, but with the Eddie Veder vocals, a slap bass and a two armed guitar, not seen since the heady days of Slash and Guns’n’Roses, we liked their slightly funky groove. Next up, ROSEMARY, with familiar sounding guitars - but unusual vocal stylings. The main singing chap was not affecting a cockney accent, or indeed a mid Atlantic drawl. Hurrah! But then some bastard was heard to say “oh – he sounds like the Levellers!” And once it was out there, it could not be taken back.

THE ALPS - pretty tight and did quite a few chart friendly tunes (nodding in the direction of Franz Ferdinand). This coupled with an exceptionally cheekboned bass player, probably means that they could become one of those indie pop crossover bands. Not bad.

And the HOLLOWAYS were lots better than expected, but we’d heard that they were crap, so expectations were low. They immediately got us on side by coming on stage in (absolutely filthy!) bras - breast cancer charity - geddit! They were cheery cheeky chaps who bounced around and happily played their particular brand of oik rock into extra time, filling the gap when the ROCKS cancelled. I’m sure I heard a couple of good tunes in there as well.

THEE UNSTRUNG, inexplicably at the top of the support tree today, made a god awful racket, dispensing with their one good song – 'Psycho' – very early on. Although Luce swears she may have heard another ok tune in there. (Shes more charitable than I am.) I guess it’s sometimes a case of who you know and not what you know and they are the definitive sub standard libertines wannabe band. There was a small group of Dogs fans in the audience that night – we’ll call them Johnny’s Bitches – who made us laugh when they started loudly singing Dogs songs halfway through the Thee Unstrung set. Well done.

Johnny's Bitches continued to entertain us by singing along to the chorus of every song the dj played. And then when DOGS finally came on stage they created their own mini mosh pit. Bless, but I really wanted them to land on their heads each time they dived. Johnny pretty much ignored them, stage interlopers are power for the cause in a Dogs show, and got on with spitting out the now familiar bruised and bitter songs. Seeming a bit unwell when he kicked off - with 'London Bridge', by the time they finished up with 'Heading For An Early Grave', he really did look near death. Oh dear. But I’ve never seen the Dogs slack off and tonight was no exception, it was blood, sweat and tears all the way. Even if it was just a charity gig at the relatively small 93 Feet. We were also treated to a new song - something about stones being bullets - so nice to know that they'll be slinging new material at us sometime in the future.

Dogs will be playing ULU in December. I guess Fringey will end up popping along to that one as well.

Dogs at the Scala

The Seated Club @ Koko

You know they just might have gotten away with it. Yes, the venue was probably too big and the drinks too expensive – like an awards ceremony without the awards. But the films were interesting, the performances unusual and, even if they weren’t that brilliant, it gave everyone at the table something to talk about. Yep, the Beetroot Field people very nearly got away with putting on an ok night out.

But: 'Adem presents the Assembly'? For the love of christ - why?

Stuck on right at the end of the night, when our defenses were at their weakest (I guess they had to clear the room somehow), it was essentially some music therapy, masquerading as entertainment. The whole thing was haphazard and shoddily put together. 15 minutes of “acoustic mass-improvisation group open to all. Many players have never played an instrument before, some people are from bands, some are classical virtuosos with no experience of improvising.” - No kidding.

And those 15 minutes - seemed a lot longer on the night. Eat Your Own Ears indeed. By the end of the performance the 30 odd “virtuosos” on the stage were the only people applauding, (themselves and each other!) - the volume certainly wasn’t coming from the audience. It was the worst kind of lazy pretentious toss and spoiled what would have otherwise been a good night. The gits.


(BTW – the Eels short film gave me nightmares. I’m not sure what this means.)

Double Dandies

Dandy Warhols at Cargo on 30th August and then at the Hammersmith Palais on 26th October.

Dandies are back and they're older, but are they wiser? At Cargo we get the opportunity to get quite up close to the band, it is tiny (they also hang out in the beer garden beforehand). Sauntering on stage looking louche, jaded and slightly sleazy, it takes a few songs for the band to warm up. Pre album release, it was pretty much a greatest hits set list, with a handful of new songs thrown in. They were ripping off Duran Duran years before the Killers. A greatest hits setlist is a pretty good prospect!

They are also quite ambivalent about their own audience, at one point Courtney pointed out that if they’d released ‘Last High’ now instead of 2 ½ years ago there would have been "a lot more assholes in here than there are now.” After a collective “!!!” from the audience he did a sly little wink, knees turned to jelly, and it was all ok again. By the end Courtney’s voice completely gave out during ‘Smoke it’ and that was it. For this show.

The Hammersmith Palais gig was part of the official tour and now we’ve all heard the new album. Its unfortunate that, apart from a handful of songs, the new stuff sucks quite a bit. People were visibly bored when they launched into some of the new songs, but they always pulled it back with a 'Get Off', 'Last Junkie' or 'Bohemian'. Having said that, the prog guitar wig outs were quite fun to watch, but the 1 ½ hour set seemed to filled with .. um filler!

Extra bonus points came when Courtney got his top off quite early on in the set, but this didn’t distract us from the fact that his voice is cracked beyond belief.

Have the Dandies learned anything? Perhaps too much musical freedom is a bad thing, but if you cut Taylor Taylor in half it would say “sex, drugs and rock & roll” all the way through.

We Love Scientists @ 93 Feet East

WE ARE SCIENTISTS have seized our very MINDS!

Oh how much does Fringey love the geeks?! And they give us BADGES and STICKERS hurrah! We are SO easily bought!

But first the support bands, where we discovered what a massive influence the Futureheads have been in the last year or so. We’re still wading through the Libertines wannabes, and yet here are the Motorettes “borrowing” entire riffs from the ‘heads, copying their vocal stylings and putting it all through a Blink 182 blender!!! I only wish I was joking.

If that’s the wrong way to do it then ROLAND SHANKS found the right way. Yes they also obviously own copies of some ‘heads cds (both Future and Talking) and maybe a bit of the Cure and we started off wanting to hate them. (Mostly because the singer looks a bit square - not geeky square, but physically box like - he was not the skinny-long-hair we felt should be fronting a band like this.) But they looked like they were having such a great time up there, that we ended up willing them to succeed. And then, right at the end, they covered ‘Great Escape’ – bless.

Then FINALLY (why the long wait boys) we get the indie power pop of WE ARE SCIENTISTS!

Geeky, Beardy and ummm.. Cute(??) come on a bit late but get straight into it - tune after catchy tune - they also do a nice sideline in amusing, between song banter to keep us entertained. Not that I was bored, although Luce did get a bit distracted by boys from other bands who were in the audience. (she’s quite fickle you know). Yes there are elements of HHH and the YYY’s in their music, so not breaking new ground here, but they do catchy pop tunes that make you bounce.

Deep down I was always more Smash Hits than Melody Maker anyway.

So there.

Luce Said:

Editors @ Astoria

The Editors aren’t messing about, they have the moody lighting, a dark layered sound and Tom Smith appears to be truly lost in the moment when singing, so not just another Curtis impersonator ... ...

Flippin' eck. This could get boring.

But then, there he goes again using his guitar as a hat and bouncing around like a hyperactive 4 year old, off his head on E numbers and additives. In the meantime the cute guitarist (in a fetching stripey top) can’t really compete so has settled for a few rock poses down the front of the stage and a disturbing amount of eye contact with the audience.
If tartrazine is the drug of choice for the Editors I’m off to find me some marzipan, marmalade and umm … mustard.

There will be more on the geek-chic of support act We Are Scientists when Fringey goes to see them headline at 93 Feet!

Luce Said: