The Hair - Old Blue Last, London - 31/7/07
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
The Hair are going to shake things up a bit.
The first thing that will make them stand out from the pack is their lead singer, not a London based art student but a northern, witty and engaging singer akin to Alex Turner. He leads a band made up of equally as interesting to watch musicians, all basic in their job descriptions yet all offering something beyond the call of duty. When they recently played The Old Blue Last in London for instance, the only dull thing about them as a band was the stage set up they had, all tightly crammed into an area no bigger than a prison cell, though without the Playstation and Sky TV, but this is no time to dip into politics.
They opened on their new B-side, the heart-racing back to their latest single 'Disco/Retro' which with a slightly different take due to broken equipment was the most extravagant set opener the band have ever mustered - a song clearly among their superior labours. When Martin isn't singing his face red he's dancing around the stage like a loon, alluring the crowd into the disorientated strategy of their dance erotica, the whispers of an early Kasabian already circling the room, 'Left Foot, Right Foot' only supporting them. They have the flamboyance of other Leeds bands like the Kaisers, Pigeon Detectives etc, but with so much more talent and charisma, so much more substance to find within their songs and with an enormous amount of prospective.
Other tenderising moments come across through 'Stocks' and 'Ghosts', both so deprecatingly depraved and yet so danceable, catchy and fun. Whatever conclusions you think you've come to are however shattered with their finale when all members of the band break away to engage in hardcore drum-battering carnage, the bashing and the angry joy of their final few moments lasting never as long as you want it to, fulfilling every last hope you could have for a group who has chosen to walk down a beaten and criticised path and come out the other end with a sound that's more electrifying than a battery sandwich.
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