X Is Loaded - London Barfly @ Monarch - 9/10/02
4/5
By: Toby L
Set-List: 'One More Razor', 'Massive Misguidance', 'Raw Nerve', '13 Days', 'Last Chance', 'Zero', 'Roll On', 'Mass Exit'.
Just when you thought that the genre 'hard-edged indie' seemed to have had its ideas evaporated via the precocious likes of those present scene-jumpers, along come X Is Loaded to prove us all wrong. Simply, a Bath five-piece so dynamically enthralling, competent and assured in the live-arena that, as frontman Jake X launches himself into the drumkit during their aptly-titled finale of 'Mass Exit', you wouldn't have anticipated it to end any other way.
But, behind the implausibly well-kept and faultless hair-cuts, there lies a prowess and charm in the 'Loaded's delivery that seems far too accomplished for an act that first started gigging just a few months ago. Well, that's possibly because the quartet's arrival marks the resurrection of members once under the guise of Tenner, another hotly-reckoned set of upstarts whose career was cut short due to the typical complications and miscalculations of what we lovingly term the 'music-industry'. However, whereas the band's former incarnation was arguably touch and go with potential rock-icon status, now, with these new tunes, the balance is firmly on X's side.
From the striking entrance of 'One More Razor', their haphazard performance is only outdone by the sound conjured simultaneously: a mixture of well-defined My Vitriol and sharp, twisting guitar interchanges that recall Bernard Butler duelling with Johnny Marr (see slower number 'Last Chance' for such evidence). Meanwhile, the MTV2-hogging debut-single 'Massive Misguidance' provides the natural contradiction to its own title, and the boys' own lovably distinctive reign of melodic charm splashed up bloodily against a brick-wall is further excelled within the righteous heights of new single, '13 Days'.
As if things couldn't get more unpredictable, they merge into The Music on our asses, fusing groove-heavy drums and bass with speckled six-string during 'Zero' before catapulting the result into a dextrous flourish of punk-raucousness. Only when such an effect veers off into obscure textures and extremely riff-happy avenues, whilst throwing in the odd mournfully woeful excursion into instrumentation here and there for good measure, are you fully aware of the sheer talent in view.
So - seemingly - yes, the UK is still possible of creating great, young upstarts that don't understand the meaning of understatement; and, judging by not just the band's delirious grins post-show and the audience's own dazed looks of excitement, X Is Loaded's existence is set to work out to everyone's favour in the immediate future.
Artists in this article: X Is Loaded
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment