Report: The Basement Club #15 - 26/2/04
By: Matt Tomiak
Honestly, sometimes we just spoil you. Us gofers at rockfeedback are serving up two of our patented Global Talent Showcases in a week this time 'round.
And we open with Earth, The California Love Dream, four Notts longhairs that have been creating something of an industry-stir in recent weeks. Like tonight's headliners, theirs is an established template - in this case, a resonating drone-rock/stoner-sludge fest. Naturally for a band whose set acts as a time-warp back to an age where follicles were lengthy and mangy, riffs were grotesque, and gak and heroin constituted a common platter for breakfast, their thirty-five minutes has some thrilling moments (the opening slump of 'Butterfly Girls', a not-so-timid 'Girls Fighting' and highlight 'ECLD' - their eponymous anthem). When they bellow, 'This is for all you Radio Four fans,' mirrorball overhead spinning sleekly, you're prepared to offer your life on a plate.
Meanwhile, the Winsome, Plaintive Indie Directive #237 clearly states that a new batch of sensitive, introspective, balladering young men must be dispatched to ubiquitous recognition each year. This year's model is Keane, a fresh-faced trio from the sleepy East Sussex town of Battle.
And we couldn't have picked a better time to see the band in such an intimate arena; Keane scored a number-three hit with major-label debut 'Somewhere Only We Know' last Sunday. Almost frighteningly, cherubic vocalist Tom Chaplin (undoubtedly a chap the ladies of indiedom wouldn't mind 'mothering') is polite, humble and effortlessly charming, but don't let his affable, presentable chums deceive you, for Keane are already a proficient live act. The sweeping richness of 'Everybody's Changing', 'We Might As Well Be Strangers' and the aforementioned 'Somewhere Only We Know' - already a bona-fide anthem in the vein of 'Yellow' or 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?' - prove just how life-affirming a simple set-up of a piano, drumkit and a quite-splendid vocal can be.
Encoring with just vox and keys for a scintillating 'Allemande', drummer Richard soon returns and set-highlight 'This Is The Last Time' pummels from the PA with a mystifying grace bolstered only for one more final run-through: a torn, weary, and intimate 'Bedshaped'. The roars say it clearly enough, the band beaming ear-to-ear. 'These are the real Keane fans,' grins Chaplin earlier in the set. And he's not shy of the truth. Emotive grandeur at its most supreme.
And whilst the band converse with fans and sign CDs and set-lists (pictured: Keane songwriter, Tim), even a post-gig DJ booth altercation involving Matt Tomiak and Tom Hannan, in which the latter forcibly prevents a public airing of Matt's treasured 'Singing The Blues: The Songs of Ipswich Town FC' CD, can't put a dampener on events. The fun continues long into the early hours... custard-shots are consumed... flirtatious behaviour is indulged in...Tomiak fails to pull. But mostly, another roaring success for the performers, attendees and rockfeedback team itself. See you all next week, we hope.