Eagulls, Bad Breeding, Silver Arm.
Lev 2 Esquires Sunday 19th October 2014.
Sunday gigs on the main stage (except bank holidays) are always an effort to both attend and enjoy. The Sabbath day at Esquires, I feel, is always best taken with some smooth flavoured heavy blues. Routines are ripped up and thrown away when level 2 opens its doors. Most people are thinking about the looming spectre of the working week. We have had some truly fantastic Sunday shows this year. I can cite Crocodiles and DZ Deathrays especially. Certainly this Pad Presents gig, which has been long announced, is an event that I have eagerly awaited.
A good sized crowd has assembled, but I feel that many of those who paid good money for a ticket would have missed what I considered the most entertaining band on show. SILVER ARM left so many good impressions after their last visit in May and they enhanced them aplenty tonight. This quartet, feature a somewhat demonic frontman. His frenetic moves and actions menacingly spell out unhinged. The crowd sense that, musically, he is several sandwiches short of a picnic and stand well back! There is a certain Biafra in his repertoire and I like that. "Bad blood" and "Do the crow" get me transfixed. This evening they produce a freshly written song for our delectation (they claim to have only written it last week). For this show only it is called "Oh Bedford, where art thou Bedford?". With our constantly revolving frontman gymnastically utilising all available limbs, he does unfortunately come a cropper when smashing the mic in his mouth. Perhaps a trip to the dentist is needed. As the Silver Arm set concludes and he gets his breath back, he engagingly enquires about the merits of the performance with "I hope you enjoyed that?". I most certainly did sir, it was rather invigorating.
Arriving from Stevenage are BAD BREEDING. In the past few months they have been creating some rather large ripples in the musical waters and have been played on 6music. Prior to their stage appearance the band make a lighting request and ask only for some stationary lights at the back. With this in place, the drummer realises that he will be in the spotlight and fry quicker than the local chippy. He dashes to the back and requests that those lights are extinguished as well. Rather than play in total darkness, a compromise is reached and a couple of side green lights stab down at the band. It's very minimalistic, but it makes it damn near impossible to spot the Bad Breeding lads at all. Indeed their vocalist performs a large chunk of the set amongst the crowd. This Herts band offer up an orgy of shouty punk which sometimes veers into volatile trash garage. They occasionally inject samples into the set which, for a traditionalist, becomes a tad boring. They say nothing at all between songs and, together with the dark stage, there is virtually no interaction between band and audience. I gather their songs are pro-political and they do perform them with plenty of the fist-clenching angsty venom expected. As an ageing punk of the first generation, it is always heartening to see the essence of that free spirited and independent genre kept alive by fresh and exciting bands such as Bad Breeding. I do have to say that I was a little disappointed by their live show tonight and perhaps they are better on vinyl.
EAGULLS finally made it to Esquires. They were originally booked to appear here back in August 2013 on a support bill with Merchandise. Unfortunately their tour van broke down on the way. Patience is a virtue and tonight we get to see one of Britain's finest emerging bands. 2014 has been very busy for the Leeds based five piece. They have just released their debut album. Back in January they hobnobbed with Hollywood 'royalty' Bill Murray on the David Letterman show. Eagulls put plenty of forethought into their overall stage presentation. They have strapped together, Heath Robinson style, a number of beer crates which are placed on the sound desk table. On the top is a projection box pointing straight at the stage. With the overhead lights switched off, a beam of flashing black and white visual images sweep across Eagulls. This idea works perfectly and I feel that it captures the image and mood that they are portraying. Their sound is very progressive punk meets gothy pop and Killing Joke and Cure influences abound. Their tall, rather rakish, frontman George Mitchell cuts quite an iconic figure. He has a strident voice and is backed up by some quality bandmates. Apparently they have chucked in their day jobs to try and conquer the music world. This huge gamble deserves to pay off. They are much adored by the NME, but tonight they say very little. However, their anthemic music speaks volumes. With Joy Division receiving a renaissance, Eagulls are the type of band totally inspired by the ghost of Curtis. Eagulls failed to convince me to buy their album, but I was very impressed with their live show. Sorry, but well done on the set fellas!
Review by Martin Stapleton. www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk