Chromatics a surprise alternative to Neon Indian
CUD performing I’ve Had It With Blondes at The Leadmill Sheffield 2012
Gutted I couldn’t be in the UK for this. #SCNY
The Wedding Present. “Back a Bit… Stop” 30.05.12 Els Concerts del Cabaret Elèctric
Not so much an acoustic radio session, as minus drum and bass. Quality as ever.
Neon Indian - Village Underground, Shoreditch. 6/6/12
Does Philip Green spell the death for Electro?
As I reflect on the Neon Indian gig I’m left with one persistent question.Has the man that gave the world two t shirts for a tenner finally moved into the world of music? Neon Indian certainly shop in his stores and the lead singer clearly thinks he’s a teenage girl in the way he holds the Mic as if its his hairbrush.
Neon Indian played some tracks from Era Extrana which is definitely worth listening to but they aren’t a band that can back it up live. The fact that Village Underground was full when the fantastic support act Chromatics were on compared to when Neon Indian played their encore the room was empty. This spoke volumes for their ability to perform live.
For me personally it came down to the lead singer Alan Palomo being a weak front man who’s far too narcissistic. His annoying habit of flicking his head with a bizarre near metronomic regularity along with his over the top Mic holding style. A style which was not very well connected to the mood of the song. It would be like dancing trance to the Dirty Dancing sound track; it just didn’t fit.
Aside from the overall ‘showmanship’ the sound was laboured and save for the odd moment there was little really to get excited about across their entire mid week set. It seemed the only real connection between group and audience was located in small pockets of drunken teenage Saturday girls dressed almost exclusively in Green’s finest apparel.
The high point and real bonus of the evening was the delicious sensory overload that are Chromatics. Despite their billing as ‘support’ the crowd were treated to a group brimming with confidence and a sack full of great tunes that undoubtedly sees them set on a solid upward trajectory.
Instantly mesmeric, Chromatics, from the very first beat took those of us lucky enough to have chanced upon them on a sonic journey through a trancing electro landscape littered with epic cannons, vast parries and teasing sound scapes.. A journey that was a truly great live experience.
Sticky Carpets rates Chromatic a very solid seven and a half pints out of ten. Killer sound!
Sadly with Neon Indian the team at Sticky Carpets thought little point in telling anything other then the truth which saw them peek at a generous three pints of shandy out of ten.
The Horrors @ Brixton 25 May 2012
On exiting the gig leaving early an enthusiastic camera man / reviewer asked for my opinion of the gig. I said it how it was: really shit. Bands have to learn how to set up their sound for the venue they’re playing in and The Horrors let themselves down massively.
A relatively large crowd started to disappear in a steady stream of disappointment. There was little reason in hanging around. We left. I’ll have to be satisfied with listening to Skying not knowing which tracks they actually played last night.
As A Simpson said “I go to a lot of gigs and you want to like them all but you know if you think a gig is shit its because it probably is” and that gig was.
Anyway it turns out the enthusiastic reviewer was a mate of the band and when A Simpson wanted to give his opinion the reviewer refused to take it!
Stickycarpets rates this gig 0 pints out of 10 - it was as exciting as mineral water
