The Rumble Strips, Pull Tiger Tail, The Little Ones & Blood Red Shoes - London Koko - 29/5/07
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
This tour may be boldly promoted as a showcase for 'New Music', but there's a distinctly retro flavour infusing all four of the bands on the bill at London's Koko. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, of course.
Brighton boy-girl duo Blood Red Shoes and their two-pronged sludge rock assault that brings to mind The Raveonettes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and (inevitably) The White Stripes, and should, by rights, get the party started. However drummer Steven Ansell grouchily bemoans the lack of crowd surfers and general excitement amongst the static Koko throng, jumping atop his kit in an attempt to spark a bit of life into the impassive audience. Mardy bum.
No such grumpiness in evidence from the beaming Californian quintet The Little Ones. Theirs is a set of winning ebullience right from the off, with opener 'Face The Facts' harnessing The Shins' giddy, hook-laden sweetness; newie 'Sweet Leaf', all harmonious 'do-do-do's and radiant optimism is like 'Good Vibrations' fed through a 2007 alt-rock filter. Ending with the uncomplicatedly splendid 'Lovers Who Uncover', the sight of Art Brut's Eddie Argos nodding along cheerfully at the bar seems to encapsulate the atmosphere perfectly.
Pull Tiger Tail's indie-electro immediacy sounds sturdier tonight than on past occasions, with the likes of 'Hurricanes', an appropriately tempestuous synth-pop romp, defining the trio's newly beefed-up sound that flirts with Killers-esque atmospherics.
The Rumble Strips are an endearing headline proposition: makers of unfussy, old-fashioned good time brass-fuelled pop music of the most appealing kind. Led by the unassuming Charlie Waller, the fact they don't resemble stereotypical rock stars accounts for a large proportion of their charm. The refutation of 9-to-5 drudgery that is 'Alarm Clock' is a delirious, grin-inducing treat, and the soon-to-be-re-released single 'Motorcycle' soars unapologetically like the kid cousin of Springsteen's 'Born To Run.' And for an encore, a celebratory caper through Thin Lizzy's 'The Boys Are Back In Town' prompting a stage invasion by members of the three other bands and a veritable orgy of drum pounding, glow-stick waving and merry inter-group celebration.
See, isn't it nicer when we all just get along....?
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