Moco - London Spitz - 3/4/02
4/5
By: Toby L
Frontman of Moco, Steve 'Mobile' Jones, resembles a man possessed. Or, alternatively, a man with a King Cobra snake lodged in his pants. However, when the much-talked-about, unsigned Manchester-based act trudge onstage, you know it's only fitting that the four-piece - resembling the mixture of characters you'd find locked up within a police-cell on a Saturday night - are led by an insane lunatic.
A nearby character quotes Moco to be the equivalent of 'MC5 - only led by Jarvis Cocker', prior to their appearance on the low-stage of London's intimate Spitz venue. Excited naturally by such a description, what comes next is something even still to be totally unanticipated. As guitarist Tony 'The Worm' Rigby and bassist Nick 'The Face of Estee Lauder' Higham assemble along the front, with Simon 'Monkey Boy' Misra sitting alone in front of his drumkit, it's rather noticeable that 'image' is key for this band - and we're not talking in a conventional, classic rock 'n' roll sense.
Higham, for instance, wears a cowboy-hat, whilst Rigby almost portrays a lawyer-cum-Badly-Drawn-Boy lookalike, Misra preferring to don a heavy-metal moustache and beard, plus flowing, long locks of dark hair. Lead-singer Steve Jones, meanwhile, has the woolliest sideburns this side of Graceland, and the skinniest body-frame to exist since Menswe@r were last seen. Seriously, it's worth the ticket-price alone just to look at them stand still for twenty minutes.
However - on to the performance, as this is what Moco will be known for primarily. The music is a snarling, jagged set of messy-rock tunes that would happily lurk within any student's CD-collection, yet you can't help but think it's just merely a background to the f**ked-up charisma of Jones, who immediately jumps off the stage once the first riff is played and begins to bellow in people's faces, his microphone barely picking up a word that he's shouting. The audience smile nervously, some preferring to let out their laughs quite obviously, but - despite the madness of it all - it never seems like a joke. Instead, what Moco deliver in a live-setting is entertainment. It's not complicated. They just want to share a good time with whoever's in the room.
And, if 'whoever's in the room' indicates a bunch of 16-year-olds in the corner, sitting down, trying to be too cool for the current band, then Jones will try and convert you to their musical religion. As such a group of youngsters natter away at the side of the stage, Steve leaps into their circle and begins singing in their faces at full volume, grabbing at them to try and spark a reaction. When they fail to respond, he lurches back on to the stage and begins to launch kicks into the air whilst raising his arms and getting the rest of the crowd to copy him. And when the rest of the crowd refuses to copy him, he lifts up several strangers' arms and makes them clap along whether they want to or not.
However, if by now you can't imagine it getting any more bizarre, then you've clearly not experienced Moco in concert - because it bloody well does. The next antic of note arrives in the form of said frontman jumping on to an instrument-trolley, whilst his band-mates create a whirlwind of messy hooks, devilish bass and extremely groovy art-punk. As he pushes himself on the wheeled object, the crowd finally adjust to his similar mindset of ridiculousness and begin to join in rocketing him around the room. It soon gets a bit violent, though as he crashes into several crowd-members and then proceeds to step back on to the stage and deliver one of the closing numbers. By the time they walk off, the crowd is in a state of utter delirium, completely transfixed by a performance that was virtually all about show as opposed to introverted-ego. It was a refreshing change.
Post-show, Steve Jones claims that, 'There's plenty more of where that came from,' when referring to the sheer quality of the band's efforts. But, whether or not the energy and excitement can be unleashed on to record is yet to be seen; for this reason, let's just hope that Moco aren't a case of novelty over quality.
Until that can be determined for sure, though, get yourself down to one of their shows - it just could be the most thrilling experience of your musical-2002...
Artists in this article: Moco
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