THE ORDINARY BOYS, MOWER & THE APPLEWHITES @ Hull Adelphi, Wed 13th March 04
“looking for some inspiration!
waiting for something to happen!” (or something like that)
-the Ordinary Boys, ‘Maybe Someday’
I've not been to enough gigs lately, and those that have been great haven't had a review. I wanted to write about the stupidly earnest support we saw one night who for the most part were a miniature Stone Roses, but then dropped a funk introduction while Lincoln's most famous homunculus hollered, "this is a song for Ian Huntley! Myra Hindley! Gary Glitter! It's called Justice" and of course our young minds messed up by Throbbing Gristle and Brass Eye could only see the funny side… I wanted to report various members of Finlay falling off the stage repeatedly… I wanted to turn my notes on that brilliant band Black Nielson into a coherent and convincing thesis but all that my notes say from the night is "tall and quiet, soft and strong"…! I wanted to write some reviews, but I also wanted to do some artwork for a degree. And to get some food…
But sometimes I need to be part of a crowd who aren't would-be artists sitting waiting to create, or customers queuing for that elusive 'kwik' save; sometimes I need to be part of a ROCKSHOW!
So I went to see some garagey rockbands.
While repetition of Libertines songs in clubs has made me like them, a retread of their own retro fashion takes more to convince: thumbs down for the Applewhites, then. This local band are so repetitive, and so lacking in energy and finesse, that their set reminds me of a teacher reading to his class over half an hour what the class has just read in five minutes and which they knew already anyway. They even have songs all about "rock n roll", and how other bands have style but no soul, but they'll go nowhere without their leathers. Too much repetition…
London trio Mower, though, can get away with a chorus that repeats "na na na na" in a song called 'Na', because their knowing but up-for-it attitude comes across in such a friendly way. They've been around for ages ("that was one for the old Mower fans.. oh, there aren't any") and obviously love to play, with the same snotty brashness as old Mower mucker Graham Coxon. It's not big and clever, but it's infectious fun and I could hardly recommend a better goodtime band. You know when someone plays guitar with his mouth wide open, and sometimes it's cos he's trying to affect an "I'm mad, me, I'm so ROCK" pose, but sometimes cos he is a bit mad and driven so by what he's doing? Mower have two of the latter.
Headliners the Ordinary Boys probably keep their mouths wide open even when they're eating. They're contemporary in a retro way, turned-up collar as two-fingered salute, fashion attitude-conscious but crowd-friendly enough to crowdsurf, and with the odd pub cover too. The music's a bit of Libertines /Franz Ferdinand but an odd touch of Gene's Martin Rossiter was noted in the mainman; 'Fighting Fit' up-for-it foppery. Dunno what they're on about half the time, the usual rock gubbins, nothing too heavy. They're about as heavy as a box of rice crispies. Still they're quite fun though, pass the time, good to see a big crowd even if they were all only lured there cos they'd heard one song even I'd heard already somewhere - some chance listen to Lamacq in the week I guess… something. And they played a bit of tuneless cacophony at the end, which I always like to hear.
The thing is, instead of building up to a noisy climax I wanna see a band who are noisy at the start and then calm down, go at it full tilt then gradually slow up.. as reflective of life as anything else the other way round.. less of joining a shy bloke get rowdy as he drinks, more starting well up for it then confiding his darkest secrets and shaking everyone's hand a hundred times before they leave… Herman Dune almost did that. I wanna do that when I form a band. yeah who's with me?
Sometimes, though, I'd rather stand
at the back and get a bit of fresh air.
