The Music / The Open / The Zutons - London Astoria - 4/2/04
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Set-List: 'The Dance', 'The People', 'Alive', 'Human', 'Welcome To The North', 'Take The Long Road And Walk It', 'Into The Night', 'Getaway', 'One Way In, No Way Out', 'The Truth Is No Words', 'Too High', 'Disco', 'Walls Get Smaller'.
If this is to be taken as the state of the UK guitar scene for 2004 to come, we should be patting ourselves on the back. Admit it, Britain was in the shadows of our friends over the pond for the past few years, no? This comes as something of an offensive, a trio poised to take over and regain some pride.
It's The Open's first London show, which, to be understated, comes as something as a surprise, as basically they're brilliant. You're left guessing about most things to do with this fresh-faced, psychedelic rock quintet as they give absolutely nothing away. Let tunes do the talking by all means, but a 'hello, we're The Open' would have been nice.
As it is, we only find out their name by eavesdropping on impressed whispers from the crowd, and then remember that they're one of the new bands most widely reckoned to rock this year most fiercely. This in retrospect is a great way to be introduced to a band of such quality, completely avoiding the hype. No between-song banter then, but the music provides ample conversation, songs of spaced-out rock 'n roll, infectious pop and frenzied shouting in equal measure, with a razor-sharp look to match. All the ingredients, then.
Next, we get the carnival - and here's a reason to love it. We can now add this band to the sparsely populated list of acts that are able to sing their own name in a song and not come across like idiots. So along with The Clash, The Beastie Boys and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, we now welcome The Zutons.
Yes, they've got us clapping in rhythm by the time the first chorus is over, but it's not all sunshine in the Zuton world. It's oddly sinister; able to float you down the Mersey one moment, give you a guided tour of an Egyptian tomb the next, whilst when a fantastic 'Pressure Point' arrives, is content to just give your head a loving kick. Zutons songs exist as if only to surprise and invigorate, written by people who at every turn thought 'what would people expect here?' and then did the exact opposite. So instead of ending with a communal sing-along, we're treated to 'Zutonkhamuun', a dark instrumental in possession of all the instrument-swapping, sole-snare drum-bashing, melodica-licking radiance we could have asked for. To exit, they take a deserved bow. If only we had some flowers to throw.
It's come to the stage in The Music's rise, meanwhile, where a set such as tonight's will be judged on its new content, not whether the first album material still cuts it; come on, we know that first record's great, and so do they. But they're brave and assured enough in the quality of their latest ideas to treat us to a generous four of them. Generous, yes, because they're probably their best songs.
'Into The Night', after all, is perhaps the first Music power-ballad (just wait 'till you hear this chorus), but it's still got that inimitably dense wall-of-sound feel that even their sparsest moments can't let go of. Otherwise, newer additions to the set find The Music faster, more stimulating and, especially on 'Welcome to the North', heavier than ever.
Scintillating then - apart from 'Too High', which simply fails to grab the attention as much as the rest of a stellar set - this is a band on peak form. And they even dispose of many of their most famous moments well before the closing section of the set, secure in the knowledge that most here tonight are coming with them wherever they lead. We're also reminded of how many great choruses there are on the eponymous debut, a euphoric rendition of 'The People' being an early highlight, but of course 'Getaway', 'The Truth Is No Words' and 'Take The Long Road And Walk It' (even omitting that wonderful mid-section breakdown) come close to stealing its crown. Visually, it's like watching a fog, the manically dancing silhouette of Robert Harvey occasionally spinning out from the clouds to unleash an unearthly howl on an unsuspecting public.
We didn't think coming here that we'd be awaiting a new album with quite this much of an appetite, let alone that we'd comfortably be able to describe The Music as unique, but both ring entirely true. Precisely the two reasons why there is perhaps no young band in the country we need more right now.
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