The Rakes @ Norwich UEA

In the era of their debut album Capture/Release, a Friday night would have been an apt time for a Rakes gig; a band who built their edgy, post-punk stylings around stories of work, work, work, pubbing, clubbing, and sleeping, especially with those who may seem undesirable in the cold light of day – the lyric “she was overweight, what did I do last night?” seems to sum it up succinctly – think Hard-Fi (if you can bear it) but far less awful. But this is 2007, and the band have inevitably moved on – their new album Ten New Messages showcasing a more expansive sound and altogether bigger issues – life and racial tensions in London post-7/7, for one. Unfortunately they seem to have been beaten to this concept by a matter of weeks by Bloc Party, but typically the NME have decided that the popularity of The Rakes should be over, scandalously giving the album 5/10 in a recent review – surely the Arctic Monkeys backlash will come shortly also. The enthusiastic and interestingly diverse from expectations crowd at this particular Friday night Norwich UEA gig, however, seemed uninterested in what any increasingly out of touch, sensationalist, essentially tabloid music weekly has to say about one of the best bands to come out of the post-Franz explosion.

I have little to say about the support acts; Norwich’s fine transport system transpired to allow us to miss first support band Love Is All, yet I imagine they were much the same as when they supported Regina Spektor at the Astoria last month – see previous review. The Holloways were the main support band, and while they generated interest from the enthusiastic kiddies at the front, they seemed a fairly average Libertines-esque indie rock band.

I first saw The Rakes alongside Editors as a relatively unknown support band to Franz Ferdinand in the cavernous Alexandra Palace two years ago – despite being a fan at the time, I recall they seemed lost in such a large venue. Yet in the confines of the UEA’s Lower Common Room they create a frenzied atmosphere, no doubt enhanced by the vibrant lighting setup and lead singer Alan Donohoe’s well-documented jerky dancing style – think Ian Curtis, but apparently he’s no influence – which got the crowd moving in imitation from the off. The angular post-punk guitar of the music itself does tend to lend itself to throwing shapes, with the band rattling through tracks from both albums in their tight set. Retreat, Strasbourg and a raucous 22 Grand Job elicited the biggest reactions from the crowd, many obviously unfamiliar as yet with much of the recently released new album – however new single We Danced Together, the catchy Trouble, excellently titled When Tom Cruise Cries and “one for the girls” Little Superstitions all went down well. Early b-side Ausland Mission and one-off single All Too Human also received airings, with the latter particularly well received. The classic Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) from their debut rounded off the main set, and an encore including Open Book with its singalong refrain and a truncated version of the originally near-18 minute The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect ended the gig, written as a commission for a fashion show and now forming the opener to the new album (thankfully clocking in recorded at a much more manageable five minutes).

We were able to meet the band after the gig and they were very friendly chaps with a lot of time for their fans; The Rakes are fully deserving of reaching the heights of a number of their contemporaries. Whether the NME with their obvious influence on the flavour of the month will allow this to happen seems to be in doubt, but Donohoe’s comments in his mid-set banter on the review seem to suggest he doesn’t particularly care, and nor should those with any taste for a decent British guitar rock band not afraid to break away from their safety net.

Brakes @ Paradiso

The pineapple seen in the background was thrown into the audience before "a song about animals and fruits", 'Porcupine or Pineapple'

After being a fan of singer Eamon Hamilton's previous band British Sea Power (he was temporarily recruited to play keyboards at their live shows) I was very curious about his newest project, Brakes.

Their support act was Spinal Tap-esque heavy metal band Saxon. By support act I mean the entrance to the small hall (where Brakes were playing) is opposite the entrance to the balcony of the main hall, so the few people who arrived early for Brakes found themselves waiting amongst headbanging bikers. It was an experience I was prepared to forget until I turned around and saw the whole of Brakes were watching too.

After a few songs I walked over to the small hall convinced it should be filling up by then. Evidently, I was wrong:


By the start of their 30 song set, which included a mix of tracks from their two albums, a few b-sides and two Camper Van Beethoven covers ('We Saw Jerry's Daughter' and 'Shut us Down'), there were about 60 people in the hall.

The band surprised me with their ability to capture the sort of energy you'd expect from a punk band when playing songs they described as "jangly guitar pop" and "barndance country" and several 10 second tracks such as 'Cheney', with lyrics like " ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. Cheney, Cheney, Cheney.... Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, Cheney... STOP BEING SUCH A DICKKKKK". The audience was fantastic, I think this was partly due to the fact that there were a group of about 10 people who had been following them on this tour and were therefore extremely enthusiastic (starting a Cotton Eye Joe style barndance during Brakes' Johnny Cash cover "Jackson", for example).

The band seemed to really be enjoying themselves, so much so that guitarist Tom White got through about 4 changes of guitar due to broken strings. However, I'm certain that singer Eamon Hamilton had enough energy in his voice alone to captivate the audience. This is a band that are infinitely better live than on record, and judging by the size of the audience last night, they are terribly underrated in that respect.

Amongst the highlights of the gig for me was 'No Return', their most mellow track, where drummer Alex took to the guitar. Eamon's voice really shone on such a quiet song and the sounds coming from Tom White's guitar were quite simply stunning. During their set closer, 'Huevos Rancheros' (direct translation= Spicy Eggs), Tom jumped into the audience during his solo and proceeded to throw himself about in front of the stage.

Brakes definitely set themselves apart in my mind from any of the bands that they have been compared to so often (The Rakes, The Futureheads, etc) and it was a highly enjoyable experience.

The Shins @ The Astoria

Another NME Awards Show at the Astoria brought The Shins back across the water for their first proper UK gig since the release of third album Wincing the Night Away. The album went to number 2 in the US Billboard charts upon release, showing their development into a more mainstream market in their home country – they may not have reached similar levels in the UK, but a long sold-out Astoria welcomed them back to the UK enthusiastically. Before that, however, three support acts graced the stage. First on were Alberta Cross, a folk-rocky four piece with lots of hair who were, I thought, reminiscent at points of Turin Brakes. Their set was enjoyable and worth investigating further.


The next support act I was very excited about seeing: I first heard about Texas band Voxtrot around April last year, and, having talked incessantly about them to all and sundry since then, I was delighted to be able to see them on their first trip to the UK. Their set included songs from their three so-far released EPs, kicking off with Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives and later Soft & Warm, Raised By Wolves and luckily squeezed in at the end due to a couple of spare minutes, their most known song, The Start of Something. When given the opportunity to be free from his guitar in Your Biggest Fan, lead singer Ramesh Srivistava bounced around the stage like a man possessed. Having already blogged about them a few weeks back I won't go into just why they're so great, but their self titled debut album featuring entirely brand new material, none culled from the EPs, will be released in May and it should be a highlight of the year's releases.

The third and final support act were Manchester's Polytechnic. I'd heard their name in various places before but wasn't sure what to expect from them: it turned to be an enjoyable but fairly uninspiring set of indie rock. They don't seem to have been making many waves in the industry of late, so I was surprised that they were main support rather than Voxtrot, who have an ever-increasing fanbase and a sound closer to that of the headliners, who made their entrance at just past 9pm. An extended intro to new album opener Sleeping Lessons built up the anticipation in the crowd before they raced through the first four tracks to the album in order, declaring it to be "face-meltingly awesome". One of the biggest cheers of the night came next for the classic Kissing the Lipless, with New Slang, Caring Is Creepy, Saint Simon and set closer So Says I from their first two albums also delighting the audience, who sang every word back at James Mercer. They also included a cover version in their encore, apparently by The Modern Lovers. I found it fairly unremarkable, but the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, frontman Mercer leaving his bandmates to deliver the crowd banter throughout the set. The addition of a new keyboardist has certainly 'rocked-up' their live sound in comparison with the recorded versions, and after hearing previous reports of them being a disappointing live act, they dispelled this with a great performance showing them to be worthy of their increasing success.