Monday, March 01, 2004
Bloc Party and The Zutons, Eletrowerkz Islington
This is the first time we’ve been to Eletrowerkz as it usually hosts Death Metal nights. Maybe with my new found love of this genre I’ll be back to see some of the bands on the posters around the venue. But then again, probably not.
Tonight is billed as a “Very Special Event”, and it certainly lives up to it. Two stages with a number of bands and DJ’s playing until 3 in the morning. We roll up about an hour after opening and can hear Bloc Party from the street outside. And man, do they sound good.
Upstairs in the “main room”, which is slightly larger than the bar area at the Brixton Acadamy, the band have drawn a huge audience. It’s only just gone 8pm and the indie masses have come out to see the new kids on the bloc (come on, I had to crack that pun!) and everyone is paying reverent attention. We squeeze into some space at the back near the sound desk.
The first thing you notice about this band – apart from the sound, see below - is how confident their performance is. Their website shows that they’ve been playing gigs for over two years and it shows.
So what do they sound like? Have they got the songs? The answer to both of these is Good and YES! There isn’t an ounce of fat in this set - every single song is a hit. I’ve only heard one single by the band (a 7” I picked up last month) but every song is immediate and accessible. I’m sure the band won’t like me to make comparisons, but they are like other great bands of our time – vocals and lyrics, thanks to Kele Okereke’s London drawl are very Blur. Musically, parallels can be drawn with early U2 and The Jam. The fact that most of the band were born well after the aforementioned bands had past their best is certainly humbling.
How much am I going to regret missing that start of this set?!? I love it when I read something about a band or hear a single and then get to see them live and they confirm that they really are new kings in waiting.
It looks like they have another month of gigs booked – go over to their website, find a gig near you and go and see this band.
Zuton Fever
This is the 4th time we’ve been to see The Zuton army in the last year. We stumbled over them playing a support set at ULU for the very average Thrills. We fell in love with their groovy, off kilter songs (and their sax player, Abi Harding to boot!)
It’s about 11:30 before the band take to the stage and we workers are pretty knackered (it’s past our bed time you know!). But lack of sleep isn’t going to stop the Zuton crew from making us dance, and sure enough they open with Zuton fever and we start to grin like loons and shake are thang.
They’ve grown in confidence every time we’ve seen them and tonight they appear to be relaxed and on good form. The Eletrowerkz sound system, long used to rumbling through the trudge of metal, springs into life with the Zuton groove. And for all the “wacky” reviews they’ve had, the band have got some serious songs. The interplay between Abi’s sax and Boyan Chowdhury’s guitar underpin each of the songs in a way that I’d never noticed before.
Another, larger headline tour has been organized for April and May, finishing with a date at ULU, headlining this time. See you there?
Details on the official Zuton web site and this rather nice fan site.
