British Sea Power - London Garage - 15/5/03
4/5
By: Toby L
Insanity, that's what it is. Whether contrived or not, British Sea Power still run away with the plaudit/displeasure of knowing that they are the UK's daftest new band. But, simultaneously, the UK's finest.
Tonight's Garage is clad for the occasion. Every moment or two, the sight of a wildlife-stricken member of the audience races into vision - mirroring, via the gift of dress, the band's own reputable fondness for woodland animals and scenery - whilst a short-film onstage shows a nonsensical load of incoherent ramblings that probably equate to an all-time classic (not that you'd know, due to this evening's instruments blocking full view, and the sound of conversations drowning out any potentially decipherable dialogue).
Then they arrive - Brighton's irreverent soldiers of psycho-indie, trooping on to a polite reception, and adorning their weapons with refreshing eagerness; there's a spark in their eyes, a spring in their step and a f**k-load of distressing, disturbing reverberations in their PA-system... Well, starting off with instrumentals has always been an ill-advised clichι in many band's histories, but with this lot, it solely serves to introduce you to the humanoids that shall be scaring us this evening. Of which notably, there's frontman Yan, a guitar-strumming and wide-eyed, petulant walking-charisma, plus bassist Hamilton - the two characters, and brothers, whose onstage exertions and idiosyncrasies fuel much of the band's collective fervour (more of which later).
Yet after the free-styling prog-tinges of their entrance, it transcends to marginally more accessible terrain - the sumptuous chimes of new single, 'Carrion', or the meaty nostalgia of 'Childhood Memories', Yan's hearty voice criminally sold short due to the pummelling bass and full set-up of the stage. Not then made easier when it comes to set highlight, and noisy second single, 'Remember Me': the band's true calling-card for this instant in their career, a rambling, massive and anthemic slab of classic British songwriting, frantic, melodic and haphazardly unrefined.
They soon throw us the clincher, meanwhile: a twenty-minute barrage of noise that forms the epic flurry of 'Lately', altogether a seething, palpitating, swelling rush of noise that combines Joy Division with Mogwai to devastating effect - characters dressed in full military garb magically appearing amidst the performance platform with banging drums... Friends and colleagues crowd-surfing with trees clinging to their costumes... Hamilton leaping on to the shoulders of anyone that should oblige him the chance. And, basically, the pinnacle of punk in the 21st Century: a raging piece of performance-art that's every bit as challenging as it is bloody hilarious.
This isn't something you have to get. Just something you have to be a part of. May British Sea Power lead us all to a better, if slightly peculiar, place.
Artists in this article: British Sea Power
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