The Molotovs - The Boilerroom, Guildford - 23/3/09
4/5
By: Charlie Bradford
This gig is part of The Suburban Sprawl, Guildford's musical equivalent of the Camden Crawl, except not quite so established. There are 20 venues overall, playing host to a wide selection of local and a few not so local bands.
Tonight the venue is the Boileroom. It's not what you'd call busy - a few youngsters are scattered around, but it's a Monday night and I have seen it a lot emptier. I'm here to see London band The Molotovs, a young 5 piece they step up on stage and look out to the crowd which is, as usual, standing quite far back. Their keyboard player (although now sitting down) towers above the rest of the members, standing at least 6ft 5'. The rest of the group are average height wearing the average garb of an indie band, but I'm very pleased that that's all you can call average about them.
They've made an effort with the stage, decorating the front with a long clear hosepipe of lights, and as they launch into 'In Conversation' it becomes clear that this slightly oddly-named bunch are going to be very good indeed.
Lead singer Will Daunt ingeniously manages to mix a crystal clear tone with sneering words to create an effervescent dichotomy. The pace of the track picks up as the drums run alongside the rest of the instruments with ease. The tempo changes continuously like a fitness fanatic on a treadmill switching between a sprint and a casual jog.
Daunt now informs the audience of their "excessive technical problems". I have to admit though to my inexpert ear I would never have known and as they launch into a new track I am still struggling to decipher how the technical problems are effecting the set, as next song 'City's Guest' is quite simply brilliant. Daunt takes control of the track with a crisp baritone grasp of the lines he's singing. A rolling guitar riff and concise keys give the track extra depth as the rest of the band simply knit their sounds together with a seamless quality.
The penultimate track opens with energy; the keys and bass are epic, which ironically is what this song is called on the setlist. 'Epic One' gives the band a chance to all show off, Daunt pushes his voice and the keys provide much more of a backbone. The chorus gets stripped back before everyone throws there all into the swirling marathon of the ending.
The final track of the night again has the light simple intro which seems to be a Molotov signature. With hints of Vampire Weekend this is the one time I can actually hear problems with sound. While still a winner, the keys are too loud and reverberate though the track with a bit too much clout. It's a bit of a shame as overall I have not heard any sound problems, but I guess there had to be something that made this gig a little less than perfect!!
With hints of Modest Mouse, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend, The Molotovs play together with ease and sophistication, and given time, could be a formidable force in the often oh so average world of indie.
Artists in this article: The Molotovs
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