'WHEN I WANK ON MY GUITAR THE WORLD WANKS WITH ME' TOUR, / home / reviews index
Hull Adelphi, 14/2/02

I like to get down the front of gigs so I can see how musicians play their instruments: note, not what they play, but how they approach playing. Will I see abandon, or merely a band on mogadon? Sometimes, for me, the difference between a great live act and a merely good one lies mostly in the drummer, for the percussion forms the backbone, the bumps that lie beneath a blanket of sound. And when I manage to focus on the dimly-lit figure sat back-of-stage, I'm disappointed by a drummer who'll just tap-tap away like they're patting a frightening dog.

Mind, Oxford's Six Ray Sun don't even have someone drumming when I enter the old 'A'. But there I'm assailed by a drummy-machine with bass so deep as to hit me in the shoulder, not just in the feet. Electronic backing is really too widespread these days for these boys to remind me only of the Cooper Temple Clause - but that they do, even though their singer is more like him Booth out of James. The guitarist jumps behind the drumkit for the last song - but that swap, we're shown later, is not as remarkable as it may seem…

Oxford's Dustball suffer an ill-fitting indie-schmindie name: Thunderball would be more apt for their reckless approach to the lo-fi-pop formula, also 'cos they often come up with winners! The spiky-haired singer barks away not unmelodically, behind him the slaphead stick-swirler putting his feet up on front of his kit! Sight alone would give no indication of their energy, except when the frontman takes his role a tad too far and sprints offstage to scrape his instrument against objects other than the usual feedback-forcing amps. I've heard of pole-dancing before, but never pole-guitaring.

In contrast to Dustball, Oxford's South Sea Company Prospectus have a name that's just awful. And no drummer, and no microphones! Instead there are too many electronically-treated voices, though like the similar Six Ray Sun they do hold crafty melodies in their machinery. And they have some of the other bands, become closely-knit and their heads full of nonsense near the end of this tour, mucking about in front of them with a banana skin, all going "whoo!" Shame their last song sounded like an instrumental version of stadium rock. Oh and one of em started playing keyboard with the head of his guitar.

Funny.

Oxford's The Rock of Travolta were once called "Mogwai with a sense of humour." Obviously I replied that Mogwai made funny as good as Kenickie, but of course our five old sonic crusaders are dourly serious when it comes to their music. Six make up the Rock, so what do they all do: there's sometimes two basses at a time, sometimes two keyboard thingies, sometimes a cello scraped away - but no vocals. TROT are like Mogwai were they as serious in music as in everything else (i.e., not very). In the middle of one song, the drummer jumps up, and plants a smooch on the central bloke's cheek. Can you see Mogwai doing that?

Not to say the Rock don't rock; for instance, 'I Am Your Father' won't let you escape from its sharp sonic clutches even when it transmutes into the Star Wars theme. TROT know that in the very extremes of dark intensity, there is comedy: as with Mercury Rev's early 'Blue and Black' ("uhhh-nnn, it's, COLD outside!"), I can't believe the glacial keys used by the black-clad sextet are taken entirely seriously. Like a silent movie they make both a spine tingle, and a smile crack open. After all, noise and laughter are both forms of cathartic release.

The group claim they wouldn't usually act up so much (so much acting as to re-make Chariots of Fire), but for this being nearly the end of a tour, and for this being Hull. However, like the way that Pixies used the studio on 'Surfer Rosa', their treatment of the gig venue as a rehearsal room shows up only the music's quality - because they can get away with it.

So by the end of the gig they're joined by Dustball's ex-Unbelievable Truth drummer and another mate, -oh- and me! Despite having watched a lot of bands playing in my short life, I don't have a clue what to do with the bass I'm chucked. That's what comes from watching how bands play instead of what. I make a bit of a noise - but that's all that they're doing now, anyway. Still, I might think twice before sitting down the front next time. And I'd still know that this TROT lot are a great live act - and (he says cheesily) more.