The Mekano Set

We played Concorde 2 last night. Thanks loads to everyone who came along - it was especially nice to see Nige and Poggy hanging over the security barrier.

What a wicked venue - according to the lift attendant {yeah - they've got a lift, and a lift attendant, I know!} it was originally a Victorian tea room. Great stuff. A touch of Art Nouveau remains in the high windows. A view of the sea, it's literally right on the beach.

The stage looks ace, great lighting, strobes, dry ice, the works. There was a mixed reaction to the sound though - all the acts seemed to suffer from low vocals.

Final Sounds were up first. Apparently their demo sounded like Kraftwerk. Their first song was a delicious mix of shimmering synth pulse, understated guitar, DMXy drum machine and echoing vocals that all came together to remind me of early Cocteau Twins stuff. Excellent. I could have listened to this stuff all night, but they didn't follow up on it, and the rest of their set was much more conventional indie-guitar stuff. The first thing I did this morning was email them to find out how they got the vocal sound!

Fat Habit were next: one guy encircled by laptops and synths, a live mix of slick ragga / housey grooves, later joined by a live vocalist, a girl in a dress. It would have been nice to see a live toaster / m.c. as well. The venue was still virtually empty at this point and it can't be much fun to play dance music when there's no one dancing. Saying that, I love listening to dance music at home, I'd rather dance to some good old fashioned {'dodgy'} new wave stuff. Play me Teenage Kicks, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Love Like Blood and Blue Monday and I'm a happy pogoing indie-teen all over again.

Then we were on. It was great to play somewhere with a decent sized stage. The sound was a bit chaotic to start with - there wasn't time for a real soundcheck, and there was so much bass end on stage that Patrick turned off all his fx for most of the set. I had a really good time but I think we'd have all enjoyed it a bit more with a longer set, say maybe three or four hours...

I actually don't mind when things are a bit wild - at least it shows people we're not miming.

ObedientBone spliced drum n bass grooves with live female vocals, a live bassist who wouldn't have looked out of place jamming with Patti Smith or Television, noisey analog synths and metal guitar chords. I've always had a real soft spot for drum n bass, even when it's used to present relatively conventional songs. I'd have liked to have seen more of their set but we were busy calming down and saying hellos. Hopefully their web site will reveal more when it's up and running again.

It's all making me really look forward to playing The Engine Rooms next week anyway.

The Mekano Set