I’m Not From London’s Fuzzbox, a night of dirty garage rock and psych, steps up a notch for its Easter egg-travaganza, moving on up to The Bodega. We went along for a listen.
It might be the singer’s drawl, his turned-up jeans, his wallabies or the fact that one or two songs go on a touch too long but Future Shinjuku remind me of turn of the century Oasis. There is a definite eastern influence, with the use of the drone and fortunately, the laptop/keyboard/box of tricks stops anything from going too far down the whole Who Feels Love route. There are a few hints of grunge thrown in but this is very serious guitar music and even a song with a unironic reggae-lite breakdown can’t take away from that.
Nottingham’s own TV Crime are much more fun. Musically, they fall somewhere between the pre-punk of Dr Feelgood or The 101ers and the pop-punk perfection of the Buzzcocks or the Ramones. There’s also the sound of some of those late punk/new wave/early MTV bands like Eddie & The Hot Rods or The Boomtown Rats. In fact, penultimate song Never Been In Love wouldn’t have sounded out of place on MTV back when they actually played music on the television. They drop a couple of new tracks about halfway through their set but they fit in perfectly - this is a band that has ironed out their sound. Their set is raucous and good fun and there just aren’t enough mullets in British music.
Headliners Avalanche Party kick things off with their topless lead singer jumping off stage and crawling along the bar, pouring a plastic cup of water over himself. While TV Crime are my favourite band of the night, Avalanche Party are easily the most interesting band of the evening - there are quiet bits, loud, almost primal screaming bits, fast parts, slow parts, subtle moments and deliciously unsubtle moments. So much variety makes it hard to really pin down what they sound like but at their best they are a cross somewhere between The Stooges and early Kasabian. At the end, the lead singer is at it again, climbing up a speaker stack. I love the idea of someone acting the true rock 'n' roll star whether they're playing The Dog & Duck or Wembley stadium, although he does use one pose too much - holding his right hand out like Chris Pratt trying to calm down a velociraptor in Jurassic World. They don't quite have the tunes yet but it's easy to see why they've been generating so much press over the last year - they put on a really memorable performance.
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