Noel Gallagher calls This Feeling “the best club in the UK for future rock ‘n’ roll stars.” Who are we to argue with Noel? We went down The Chameleon to check out their latest event.
Kicking things off are Vigilantes from Boston, Lincolnshire. Their next single Don’t Speak really encapsulates their polished mid-late ‘90s US rock sound. If they were from Boston, Massachusetts and were around 20 years ago, they could have been soundtracking Dawson’s Creek. The lyrics, “I pushed my fingers into the sockets to feel a buzz” sum things up pretty well. At one point they say, “we haven’t got a set list so we’re just kinda winging it” and I just wish there had been a bit more of that about the music. It’s all very good from a technical standpoint but it could do with a pinch more unpredictability and excitement. They close with former single Yuck, probably the pick of the songs on display
Six-piece The Seamonsters have spent the summer playing festival after festival and are here to headline but not headline. They have an ‘80s synth sound yet are also completely modern. The highlight of their upbeat, energetic set is L’amour Est Un Jeu Fou, which is the best non-Bond Bond theme since Tomorrow Never Lies by Pulp. It just needs a sting of Monty Norman and Cary Fukunaga could be using it to open Bond 25. They close with Lost & Found before an appreciative audience demand an encore.
Which leaves local lads The Colliders to close out the evening. They are clearly massive fans of Arctic Monkeys and sound like early Arctic Monkeys rather than loungecore Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino Arctic Monkeys. To hammer the point home they even cover A Certain Romance. At one point, frontman Tommy says, “check us out on Facebook and that” in a manner that recalls Alex Turner. What they do is really good but I’d like to see them put a bit more of their own twist on things to just nudge them out of a Monkey shaped shadow. They’ve started to pack up when a shout of “more” emerges from the back of the room. The Colliders don’t look convinced but still strap their guitars back on to close with a cover of Cigarettes & Alcohol by Oasis. Maybe that’s why Noel is so keen on these nights.
This Feeling returns to The Chameleon on 18/10/2018
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