Long time since I did a gig review, and a long time since I've felt soooo old, but Thursday night I did. Another Damn You/Gringo joint, and a return for a second time for me to the Rose, surely Nottingham's scuzziest venue (like that's a bad thing). As with all DY gigs the "door at 8.30" message proved hideously inaccurate,and for a 41 year old a 12.25 finish is just too late, but this was Lords and Bilge Pump, two of my favourite bands about right now, and seeing them together is usually a guarantee of milky goodness, que no?
Not in This Town opened, I'm assured by Naylor that we've seen them before, and they did ring some bells, but I can't think where or when. Palm and Naylor liked them, I have to say they weren't my cup of tea. They were quite fun 'n' all, but it didn't quite work for me, it was like three disparate elements never gelling, and while I'd encourage them to go on, because they got a good response from an admittedly partisan audience, I'd not rush out to see them on their own. A passable start though.
Next came Lords. I love Lords, me, although tonight was a different show for them. The release of the new album Everyone is People in June necessitates showcasing the new material, and in this they were really successful. A more aggressive, louder and sexier brand of Lords-swamp-rock seems to be evident, and for the most part this really worked well. The older material did suffer a bit for me though. Certainly Pint of Wine seemed to be quite dismissively rushed through and I Shook the Royal Throne and Unfortunate Death of the Lords didn't benefit from the faster more muscular approach either. So this showing was a hard one for me to square, still love the band, find the new material really exciting, but wish they were a bit more reverent with the "oldies", because they have some real nuggets there that need to be polished up a bit more than they were on Thursday. Reading that back it sounds really negative, and that isn't really what I feel, they were 8 out of 10 good, and a raucous laugh, just maybe a slightly odd aftertaste queering my pitch. They're away on tour at the mo' go see them and see for yourself, it doesn't get much more awesomerer than The Rememberer.
Maybe in part Lords' haste was due to the fact this gig seemed to be mainly a kinda launch for the new Bilge Pump album Rupert the Sky. I think I've been the keenest on BP of the three of us from the get-go, but tonight they ramped up the stakes with some awesome new (to me) stuff and a longer louder set than I've seen them do in the past. I'd have to say they also ballsed my fave song/medley Bastard Scaffolder into Up the Nest by playing it too fast, so maybe there's something in the air/water for them and Lords too. They were fucking great though, deserved the headline billing, and the new album really is a big step up from Let Me Breathe. Get on the bus now.
How do your photos of the gig look? Mine showed plenty of 'action' (i.e. very blurry and mostly unusable).
Posted by: palmer_eldritch | March 26, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Not got them off of the phone yet, may need the help of your bluetooth equipped Mac
Posted by: Gilbert | March 26, 2008 at 03:53 PM
Righto, have to do that when term starts then.
Posted by: palmer_eldritch | March 27, 2008 at 01:29 PM