Pun Lovin’ Criminals – Madame Jo Jos, London – 22/1/08
5/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
Pun Lovin' Criminals are: Dev (Lightspeed Champion), Fred (Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man), Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Joe Edwards (The Rascals), Ferry (Semifinalists), Victoria / Samantha (Ipso Facto).
In mini-celebration of his new album, ex-Test Icicle and current Lightspeed Champion dynamo Dev Hynes semi-surprised a Soho crowd with a small but extraordinary performance of indie classics that included the Von Bondie's 'C'mon C'mon', the Walkmen's 'The Rat' and The Vines 'Get Free' with Fred (Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man) on vocals; the numbers taking the front man into those deep reaches of his inner indie child that screams for air guitar and mirror-kissing lamentation. He attacked the songs with great fury and conviction, only having to indulge himself with the lyric sheet a brief few times. He exposed the songs with a passion; hurtling himself across the small and awkwardly arranged stage, to the hum of a mere few hundred shuffling feet.
He was followed by Ferry (Semifinalists) who offered the most surprisingly brilliant interpretation of Interpol's 'Slow Hands', a track that is normally too much of a monster for the songs originators to pull off, but done at Madam Jojo's with awesome aggression and swamping warmth. This was an utter highlight of the show, hearing the power of this mammoth tune reduced to a dance-pepped indie club stab of complete fulfillment. Nice, huh.
The night was capped off by the rather shambolic arrival of Alex Turner, who in the small scope of this tiny London corner didn't seem like the arrogant headliner that's been plastered across MTV2 for the past 24 months, but an indie fan here to play indie music. The track they so gallantly pushed was The Strokes 'Reptilia', which with Alex's trademark super-fast strum became an amphetamine pumping dual of guitars and rolling melody, Dev falling over the mic stands to bash out the songs infuriating bridge riff that blew the hours of darkness to pieces, lashing the lemonade smiles of the crowd to sugary bangs of disbelief.
Granted, it would have been nice to see Dev doing some more vocals than he did, only really peaking during a 'where's Alex?' Interpol filler. Also, the fact the venue was stacked with the odd celebrity, from a seductive Kelly Osbourne to a happy-go-lucky Good Shoes front man, made it all seem slightly planned... but who gives two shits when it's this inspiring. No one act tried to steal the show and by doing so the complete band, Pun Lovin' Criminals, blew the place apart with a flurry of music so implausible it would take the scene-elite to do it as much justice as they did.
Dear readers, I'm not a cool person, not by any stretch of the imagination. Not even in an un-cool cool way. I'm just not... However, in answer to the puzzling question; what makes us cool? Well. We didn't actually go to the show to see this deliriously wonderful collaboration. We went to see new up-and-coming band The Molotovs who could just be another guitar band, as the first half of their set suggested, but could also be the biggest thing to happen to our ears since British Sea Power. This accolade grew from the sheer adrenaline and spot-on harmonics of the second half of their set which hauled big, menacing drums into bed with frantic pianos and crawling vocals which express a passion for songmanship so infrequently seen you wonder how these guys were inspired by anything other than the greatest bands in history.
You can see various clips from the show on the White Heat YouTube page, HERE.
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