The Research @ the Old Blue Last

OK, so Fringey is in 'Shoreditch' theme pub, the Old Blue Last, and its rake thin pretty boys with shiny hair and skinny jeans everywhere you turn.
(Oh, I wants one. Maybe get a matching set? And make nice earrings??)

Anyway, we’re here to see The Research do the first of their 3 album launch gigs. But in support we have ABSENTEE. Who have a BRASS section, no less! Which works brilliantly when used, but in the rest of their set they tend to trail off into a dull stoner drone. (Or am I just being very impatient?)

Then suddenly it’s all goes a bit “scene”, we can spot boys from other bands, band managers and club promoters scattered and drapped all over the shop (hats! hats! hats! everywhere I look! hats!). It’s not a very big room, I suspect that luce and I are the only people who have actually paid to get into this thing. And there’s a lot of love in the room for the Research.

For THE RESEARCH are: kooky, quirky, quizzical, oddball, off-beat, off-the-wall, geeky, idiosyncratic, peculiar, quaint, unconventional and whimsical, but not TWEE.

"Good God no, don’t put them into a TWEE GHETTO" - their fans cry.

But they are very twee aren’t they? With lo fi indie pop songs about broken relationships? Played on a bashed about casio keyboard? I should say so. Its the lo fi that gets on my nerves, get some decent production and learn to play properly, then you can make the whole world go *POP* with those tunes.

Twee is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Luce Fringey said:

What? even more Rakes??

Oh Yes! What we really need about now is yet another Rakes review, its been well over two entire weeks since the last one.

But this ones special see, its in the teeny tiny Metro Club and has even promised to go on well past my bedtime! ....

oh and its sponsored by the NME - God help us all!

So anyway ...

We chat through the support, the jammy greendayness of the ONOFFs and some desperately average electro synth eighties outfit called PERFORMANCE, before the THE RAKES bounce on stage and get straight into it.

Even so, its quite a relaxed performance from Donahoe (well it is for him) not nearly as manic as usual and, turns out, he's quite a witty chatty chap. We get the changing of lyrics to tease Matthew Swinnerton about a supposed obsession with Karl 'Neighbours' Kennedy and, at the end of the night, pleading with some of the more excitable fans not to do a stage invasion because ... "it's such a cliché”.

But, most importantly, there is space aplenty in the tiny Metro, for Fringey to do the dancin' and the jiggin' about.

This is Lucefringey’s "interpretation" of the Rakes gig:

Cribs are not Automatically a Giant Drag!

Can we just stand back and admire the subject heading for a moment ....

lovely. So anyway ...

• The CRIBS, as good as ever and I still love the Wakefield accents. They put on a great shouty show for the kids, but sparkley glitterballs - really?? And some new songs might be an idea for the future.
  
• The very hyped AUTOMATIC were dancerocktastic, with a limelight hogging show stealing maniacal keyboard player! But someone should perhaps point out to the singing chap that if you're a bit on the chunky side then its probably best not to go down the b/w breton stripes route. Although I did notice later that he and his girlf. were practically wearing matching tops. Weird.



• GIANT DRAG, I really like the idea of them, but ultimately she is well annoying.
  

We'd chickened out of the downstairs mosh pit and had retreated up to the Astoria balcony, could see into the the wank VIP bit, but there wasn't anyone special watching. Har Mar doesn't count as a sleb anymore does he???

Stroking the Strokes @ the Hammy Apollo

well not really ... (sigh).



I'd talked quite a few friends into coming along and I was bricking it incase they were pants. But Julian and chums absolutely kicked it tonight! They were far, far better than I'd been lead to believe - from previous reviews and my own witnessing of their *outstandingly* shite performance at the V festival in 2004.

hurrah the STROKES!

Blonde Ambition!

Fringey spent this Saturday evening checking out The Long Blondes as part of 'Now Stand Tall - Icons Of The New Sonic Generation' ( the pretentious title for a 'boys in bands' photo exhib at the Spitz by Dean Chalkley).

But the only blonde hair seen tonight was the bad bleach job of NEILS CHILDREN singing chappie John Linger. At their best they're like a punked up Cure, at their worst they just make a god awful banging boring racket. I'm hoping that the tunes I liked were recent ones and indicative of an upswing in talent and ability. I think I liked them, even if they do look faintly ridiculous.

Then was the turn of the ladies (yes I know there are two entire boys in the LONG BLONDES and one even writes some of the songs, but really, do they actually count?). They launch straight into ‘Appropriation (By Any Other Name)’ and show exactly why everyone says they are so bloody good, in fact practically every song is a proper spikey indie pop tune. In Kate they have a fantastically sulky, sarky front woman, who can be feminine/sexy without the usual annoying flirty grimaces, pouting and eyelash flutters that can alienate half the audience. - (yes I'm talking about you Hot Puppies and Gin Palace!) - I’m liking The Long Blondes a lot, their website says they’re playing Lancaster Library in May. Brilliant.

The gig finished around midnight, but we wanted even more! So we thought it would be a good idea to hop on over to Frog, at the Meanfiddler. I hadn’t been there in over a year, and then it was to see the sublime Futureheads. This time round we got an indie super club, rammed with bused in 'Essex indie', - and the YOUNG KNIVES, who were not as good as we’d been led to believe. But they do look funny though don’t they? And I do like the slight mentalness of that ‘Decision’ song.

Still it was quite good going for a Saturday evening. Anyway I’m off now to buy me a couple of pencil skirts, neck scarves and stock up on the eyeliner.

Luce said:

The Rakes etc @ the Astoria

Under what circumstances is the willful killing of minors acceptable?

It started of well enough; we turned up early as there were 4 (quite good) bands playing tonight, yep count em, 4 for £11. It’s a budget gig, and within pocket money grasp, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that lots of kids showed up. The fact that they were all off their faces was a bit of a shocker though, and the lack of personal hygiene wasn’t something I was prepared for either. Next time I’m bringing a cattle prod to keep the rank, repulsive, horny, violent, pilling little f**kers off me!

Still first on to a nearly empty Astoria the ON OFFS were ok, they made lots of noise and filled the stage doing a British Greenday, with shouty threepart harmonies included. The DUELS were next and I preferred their darker powerpop stylings, (even if Maximo has gotten in there first with this type of thing). The singing chap was working the heavy overcoat moody bastard look, but that could have been because the half empty Astoria was bloody freezing.

Still when it comes to image no one comes close to the mighty bleached WHITE ROSE MOVEMENT. Resplendent in a tight inside-out T (it must be how they’re wearing them at Trash these days) and skinny yellow - yes, YELLOW - jeans, Finn Vine strutted round the stage like an indie rentboy on the tout.

Then finally it was headline act time and out they trot, looking ever so ordinary after the shallow glamour of WRM, but THE RAKES are not without style and their performance is absolutely exceptional! They blend gritty clever lyrics and a dancy art rock sound with, some very silly, slightly effeminate jigging about. The mad staring eyes and the throwing shapes with his elbows are trademark Donohoe moves, and even though his energy on stage is less nervous now, there is still an intense spontaneity to everything he does. They end on 'Strasbourg' and the audience go nuts. Well slightly more mental than they had been. Perhaps next time I may think about finding a safer vantage point, or bring along that cattle prod!

More Rakes at the Meanfiddler.