The Spinto Band @ Cargo

Fringey have been liking the SPINTO BAND since way back in 2005!

But I only started loving them when they handed me a Spinto badge and kazoo on entrance to Cargo.

There was the whiff of "industry gig" about tonight. NME hacks and xfm dj's were in attendance along with various other chin strokers, this didn't seem to bother anyone on the stage though.

The Spintos were fabulous. I haven't witnessed that much joy and jumping around since Arcade Fire, and their songs are beautiful indie pop, but not at all twee, oh no. There were six of them on stage and the interaction and movement was non-stop, they love the songs they're playing more than you ever could, and they aren't afraid to show it. 'Mountains' and 'Mandy' were obvious highlights, but they've got a strong set. The last proper tune, the 'kazoo song' (not sure what it's called*), was absolute genius (there should be more kazoos in indie pop!) and prompted a bit of a stage invasion from a couple of indie girls. Then they finally came back to do a Spinto cover version of Tiffany's 'I think we're alone now' as an encore.

At the end of the night the Spintos hung around to sell their own merch from the STAGE, adapting mic stands into mannequins for t-shirt display and signing vinyl singles for new fans. They were still at it when we were leaving. Bless. I want to be their mum.

The support FIELDS were quite brilliant too, they have a lovely lush indie pop/folky sound with lots of three part harmonies. They come in somewhere between the Americana of Rilo Kiley and the twee of Field Music and if we'd seen them headline (at the Water Rats or Barfly say) we'd have still come away well pleased.

The whole evening completely chased away my January/winter blues and I liked it lots. The Spintos have also keep their own blog here, detailing a disturbing obsession with snooker amongst other things. - Nope i've no idea why either.

(*the 'kazoo song' is, off course, the fabulous 'Brown Boxes'!)