Fonda 500

FONDA 500, ENGERICA, MILE DRIVE, Hull Adelphi, 27/01/04

I get confused and nervous watching bands sometimes. I can't understand why some bands are on stage. Why have they been booked? Why do they think it is worthwhile for them to be playing? The annoying thing is that local four-piece Mile Drive sound quite good but are quite dull. If only their songs were all shorter by about three minutes and weren't so straightforward in their rock. I recommend Pixies for them (as I would for anyone, of course).

Engerica also sound quite good but bore me for much of their set and I think of how appropriate their name would be if they just swapped a couple letters around. Haha. They just seem a typical Drowned In Sound-type band, three guys, all hoarse shouty vocals and loud guitar, a touch of those manic wonders Mclusky tempered by wannabe Americanisms. One song in particular sounds to me like a slow and horrible death. I'd probably love it were I in the right mood.

Just goes to show again how subjective and stupid reviewing gigs can be. I only "get it" in the last song. The lyric to pick up on is:
YOU ARE SHIT
BECAUSE YOU EAT SHIT
AND
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
It's more stupid than anything and that's why it ROCKS!

Everybody knows that Fonda 500 cleverly stupidly ROCK and POP also, forsaking devil horns for panda ears and wearing clothes that went out of even 'Indie' fashion some years ago. So the supports were strange for them but where would you find a band who sound at all like Fonda? Here as ever in their melange there is fuzz, glam, human beatboxing, the noise of animals, and four people in a row playing keyboards, Bod in particular attacking her instrument with a vigour surely unseen since acid house. In between the footstomping (Adelphi-style) classics 'Computer Freaks of the Galaxy' and 'Arigato' are such new delights as the one with the homemade maracas (which would sound great on radio, or on Top of the Pops in a quasi-shocking Franz Ferdinand way, scaring the youngsters with their -shock!- guitars, or just sounds great anyway wherever), even a spot of near-shoegazing and, well I'll be swizzled, a country song. The country song is about a Casio keyboard, appropriately enough for this band.

This may all sound strange if you have not encountered it before (or even if you have. It's like they're including breathers in their set now, as if they want to give a stadium a break from dancing). But this band are on stage because they should be. I want to be like Fonda 500 when I grow up. Or when I don't.

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FONDA 500, ENGERICA, MILE DRIVE, Hull Adelphi, 27/01/04 I get confused and nervous watching bands sometimes. I can't understand why some bands are on stage. Why have they been booked? Why do they think it is worthwhile for them to be playing? The annoying thing is that local four-piece Mile Drive sound quite good but are quite dull. If only their songs were all shorter by about three minutes and weren't so straightforward in their rock. I recommend Pixies for them (as I would for anyone, of course). Engerica also sound quite good but bore me for much of their set and I think of how appropriate their name would be if they just swapped a couple letters around. Haha. They just seem a typical Drowned In Sound-type band, three guys, all hoarse shouty vocals and loud guitar, a touch of those manic wonders Mclusky tempered by wannabe Americanisms. One song in particular sounds to me like a slow and horrible death. I'd probably love it were I in the right mood. Just goes to show again how subjective and stupid reviewing gigs can be. I only "get it" in the last song. The lyric to pick up on is: YOU ARE SHIT BECAUSE YOU EAT SHIT AND YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT It's more stupid than anything and that's why it ROCKS! Everybody knows that Fonda 500 cleverly stupidly ROCK and POP also, forsaking devil horns for panda ears and wearing clothes that went out of even 'Indie' fashion some years ago. So the supports were strange for them but where would you find a band who sound at all like Fonda? Here as ever in their melange there is fuzz, glam, human beatboxing, the noise of animals, and four people in a row playing keyboards, Bod in particular attacking her instrument with a vigour surely unseen since acid house. In between the footstomping (Adelphi-style) classics 'Computer Freaks of the Galaxy' and 'Arigato' are such new delights as the one with the homemade maracas (which would sound great on radio, or on Top of the Pops in a quasi-shocking Franz Ferdinand way, scaring the youngsters with their -shock!- guitars, or just sounds great anyway wherever), even a spot of near-shoegazing and, well I'll be swizzled, a country song. The country song is about a Casio keyboard, appropriately enough for this band. This may all sound strange if you have not encountered it before (or even if you have. It's like they're including breathers in their set now, as if they want to give a stadium a break from dancing). But this band are on stage because they should be. I want to be like Fonda 500 when I grow up. Or when I don't. home / reviews index
	The new album 'The Spectrumatronicalogical Sound' is out now on Gentle Electric. Should be a good 'un. There is also an Engerica single called 'The Smell'.