Full disclosure. I was a teenager in the late 80s and I wasn’t a cool kid who liked all the bands we now see as cool now. I can’t honestly say I knew any cools kids – the ‘cool kids’ in my class liked Madonna. I think we were too late for the post-punk wave. I can’t honestly say there was much music I liked up until I was about 16. I had a few C90s with copies of albums from friends and family bit if I had pocket money it went on the latest C64 game, not music. What I owned was all mainstream stuff, soft rock like U2, Simple Minds and mainstream pop, including the Pet Shop Boys. With songs like West End Girls and It’s A Sin, for a few years in the late 80s, the Pet Shop Boy released some awesome pop songs that still stand up now.

Tonight’s gig at the Electric Ballroom was part of the Save Our Venues, ‘Passport: Back to Our Roots’ series that took some successful artists back to small venues. A friend had managed to win two tickets so I tagged along. While the Electric Ballroom isn’t small, it is for the Pet Shop Boys.

I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, but there were already queues when we arrived an hour and a half before doors. It was an unusual experience not to be at the front of the queue or the gig. But the Pet Shop Boys have a dedicated fan base and this was a small venue.

I expected a relatively short set. With PSB headlining the Other Stage at Glastonbury, they brought us a sneak preview of their headline set. Minus the massive stage show and costume changes. As you can see from the set list, it was a good length set featuring many of their big hits, along with some surprises, like U2’s Where the Streets Have No Name.

The thing that surprised me was how the classic songs have clearly developed over the years as PSB have tried to stay relevant in a dance market. With songs having much stronger drum and base clearly added for the 90s and 00s dance market. In some ways it aged the music shifting the music from the 80s to the 90s. I am not sure they added much to classic tracks. The synth sound that made the Pet Shop Boys so recognisable, was often drowned out by the drums. But you know what. It didn’t matter. It was the Pet Shop Boys. Neil can still put on a good show. He still has his distinctive voice. It was time to switch off and enjoy a slice of 80s nostalgia. Oddly, the highlight of the evening was a song I don’t remember hearing in the 90s, ‘Being Boring’. Its reflective lyrics seemed to be a good way to end the evening. We have all changed since the 80s. We should be thankful we can still experience nights like this. I genuinely found the song moving.

• Suburbia
• Can You Forgive Her?
• Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)
• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)
• Rent
• I Don’t Know What You Want but I Can’t Give It Any More
• So Hard
• Left to My Own Devices
• Domino Dancing
• Love Comes Quickly
• Losing My Mind
• You Were Always on My Mind
• Dreamland
• Heart
• It’s Alright
• Vocal
• Go West
• It’s a Sin
• West End Girls
• Being Boring

I saw Wet Leg six months ago at Omeara. Playing to a room full of Industry. With only two singles released, the room’s reaction was a little muted. Tonight, as predicted back then, with a room full of people who knew their songs, the Electric Ballroom was bouncing.

In my review at the time, I said I would reserve judgement. The building blocks of a good band were there, but we needed to see how they progressed. Tonight, it is clear they are destined for success. Just two weeks after the release of their No. 1 album. Some people around me knew the words to most of their songs and early in the set, everyone was singing along to ‘Wet Dream’, as Rhian giggled with joy.

While Wet Leg are Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. It was great to see they are developing as a band as a whole. Tonight it really was Wet Leg the band, with good chemistry on show and they all seemed to enjoy themselves and lots of smiles and encouraging nods between the band members and Hester and Rhian, generally larking about. They seem to have the right attitude, enjoy every moment of the adventure.

There was an interesting contrast that in some way explains Wet Leg’s winning formula. Support was from Honeyglaze who I think objectively have better and more sophisticated songs. Very much the clever indie that goes down well on 6Music but won’t get airplay elsewhere. Many in the audience talked through their whole set. What Wet Leg have done is create infectious songs that have a wry sense of humour and captures the irrelevance we all had up to our mid-20s before the realities of life hit us. They somehow have bottled it up in 3 minute long songs which seem both familiar and fresh. None of the songs overstay their welcome. They are all fun. So an oldie like me feels young again, while teenagers feel the songs are talking to them rather at them, It is incredibly rare that a band manages to do this.

As predicted, ‘Chaise Lounge’ caused the crowd to explode with joy. Everyone jumping up and down singing along to one of the most infectious songs in living memory. This band are going to go down a storm at festivals. I wonder if any festival will be brave and give them a top-of-the-bill slot because you know what? Even if they feel they aren’t ready, I think the crowd are ready to carry them there.

Set List

• Being in Love
• Convincing
• Wet Dream
• Supermarket
• Piece of Shit
• Too Late Now
• Obvious
• Oh No I Don’t Wanna Go Out
• Ur Mum
• It’s a Shame
• It’s Not Fun
• I Want to Be Abducted (By a UFO)
• Angelica
• Chaise Longue

After flitting it from the Agnes Obel album launch at Rough Trade East, I managed to get to the Electric Ballroom in time for The Murder Capital’s set.

The Murder Capital continue to grow as band. Their stage craft has been honed by constant touring over the last year and they are ready for the big venues. Although that isn’t going to come without some hitches.

The thing that separates the Murder Capital from their contemporaries is the way they mix strong emotions with songs with visceral energy. Unfortunately, emotional, but quiet songs aren’t necessary the kind of songs that will translate to bigger venues when you have larger numbers of pissed blokes and tonight there was small pockets that were impatient during the beginning of On Twisted Ground. This is going to only get worse as the venues get bigger, and bigger they almost certainly will. When everyone finally calmed down, the song thankfully packed the same emotional punch it had done at previous gigs.

Set list

1. More Is Less
2. For Everything
3. Slowdance I
4. Slowdance II
5. On Twisted Ground
6. Green & Blue
7. Love, Love, Love
8. Don’t Cling To Life
9. Feeling Fades

PINS are up first. I’ve seen PINS once before and thought they were excellent. They’ve got a great garage-pop sound. Live they add infectious energy and great stage presence. What’s not to like. They appear to have added a keyboard player since the last time I saw them. This means the lead guitarist is freed up from keyboard duty to add more energy to their performance. As expected. It was a good performance and seemed to go down well with a decent size crowd.

Next up were Big Deal. I have to admit I was disappointed with their performance. The vocals seemed too low in the mix and I could hardly make out any of the vocals and when they did come through, they were at times, out of tune. Maybe the monitors were off on stage. But it wasn’t a performance to write home about.

Drenge are an interesting band. Two pieces have to work hard to be noticed. They also have to be careful not to fall into just producing noise. When I’ve seen them in the past. I’ve enjoyed their performances but they’ve not been quite top-draw. (The Wytches have often supported them, and the Wytches performances were always another level to Drenge’s). I was also less than impressed with the dynamics of their latest album which sounds like it’s a tenth generation cassette copy (I’m showing my age!). So I wasn’t sure what to expect. I need not have worried.

Drenge the two piece are now a three piece with the addition of a bass played and I have to say, what a good move. The bass player added much needed extra dynamics to both the music and the performance. The sound was much ‘beefier’ but achieved it without hammering the dynamics by adding more layers of guitar feedback. In fact the new songs that sound so muddy on record, sounded much clearer live. Something that’s not usually the case.

The crowd were also up for tonight’s performance. The great / bad things about bands who start to take off, is that you have to put up with pissed teenagers who just want to mosh. I’ve been there. I did the same when I was their age and at times I still do so. But I find when there’s a big mosh going on, I become a bit disconnected from the music as my brain starts to concentrate some of it’s efforts into staying on my feet. This happened a few times tonight and I zoned out of the music and into the collective movement of the mosh. I was happy when they finally played a quiet song and got a much needed break from the incessant crowd surfing.

Tonight’s new material slotted in remarkably well with the older material. I guess they’ve been playing it on tour for months because many of the songs seemed remarkably well bedded into the set and I have to say, tonight’s performance was on a higher performance level than any the previous times I’ve seen them play. In fact it’s worth my bruised ribs to see how far the band has come in such a short space of time.

In all honesty, it wasn’t the strongest festival. But it wasn’t expensive and it was the first year. Hopefully, if they can widen the parameter of ‘Rocks’ to include a wider range of indie bands, then I think this has potential to be a decent low-key festival

Strangefruit

Love Zombies

Blitz Kids

Struts

Max Raptor

Dogbones

Dinosaur Pile-Up

The Graveltones

But I’m jumping ahead of myself. Tonight’s gig at the Electric Ballroom was an NME Award show. Support coming in the shape of Eagulls

I’ve seen Eagulls before. The first time, a single impressive song at SXSW. But I’ve since seen them play a longer set that left me less impressed. Tonight was also of the ‘less impressive’ variety. Don’t get me wrong, I like their recordings. But for some reason the live performances leave me indifferent. I suspect it’s a lot to do with the mixing. The vocals are often low in the mix, which was the case tonight. Having heard a great song at SXSW, they are clearly capable of something. Maybe they just need the right venue with the right sound guy?

After the Eagulls unfortunately left me cold, Parquet Courts came on. My earlier comparison to Velvet Underground may be surprising, but it has some basis in reality. Live, many of their album songs transformed into 10 minute long songs, and not with a little bit of skill. Although impressive, enjoyable and surprising, I did wonder if this was what I really wanted from the gig. I like the intensity of the album and I have to admit being just a little bit disappointed that the same intensity isn’t captured on stage. But that’s a bit churlish, because if I’d gone in expecting what I’d heard, I would have left thoroughly pleased.

Goat

The evening started slowly with some contemporary dance performed in the centre of the main hall . It was like some art school students had formed an alternative mosh circle. I suppose it’s best not to judge something if you have no context to judge it by. So I’ll be generous and only suggest that maybe it was the wrong audience (or at least I was)

An increasingly bored BEAK> followed immediately after the dance. The poor guys had gone on stage at the time they were meant to be performing and sat there bored as the late starting dance ran into their session. Still once they got going they produced some interesting music to a very enthusiastic crowd. Some pieces I really didn’t like. Other pieces were great. The big downside for me was how static the band was. Basically there was no stage presence with a drummer, keyboard player and oddly a seated bass player. I prefer a bit more dynamism in the bands I go to see. But I might pick up some of their music to see what they are like on record.

With everything running late. There was a shorter than advertised change-over between BEAK> and the Savages and unfortunately this had an effect on The Savages set with problems with the bass plaguing several of their early songs. (the roadie who ‘checked’ the bass didn’t even pick it up).

But despite these small technical issues, the Savages put in another storming set. Again, the rhythm section stood out (when the bass issues were sorted). They really do drive the songs forward but that’s not to say the other band members weren’t on form, far from it. This four piece is almost perfect. Amazing guitars and intense vocals from Jehn. It’s just rare to see such a tight rhythm section. Maybe my only complaint is that some of their material is weaker than the best of their output. There’s a really stunning 40 – 50 minute set. But being a new band who have yet to release an album, there’s still time to develop more stronger material. Sounds harsh. I don’t mean it to be as the Savages are currently my favourite new band. I believe they’re playing SXSW. Hopefully they’re playing some dive to give me the chance to see them in a tiny venue.

This was the first time I’d seen his new touring formation, a formation which introduces his new base player, none other than the legendary John Paul Jones and you know what, in the most part, it worked. At times, JPJ’s bass playing was arguably too precise for the roughness (and charm) of Steve’s guitars. But when it worked, it was fantastic to see.

Seasick Steve at the Electric Ballroom flickr set