finally, a gig in norwich. i wasn’t exceptionally optimistic about this one, but i had little else to do on a mediocre saturday night and managed to trick a friend into attending, despite him having no prior knowledge of any of the 3 bands due to play.
fever fever stepped up first and played a solid burst of post-gunge riot grrrl punk. fairly standard, and, as was to be the case with all the bands tonight, completely wasted on such a big venue. in a sweaty beer pit, this would have been an inspired performance but the arts center is a cavernous auditorium, and the spirt of fever fever was rather lost.
next up was men, featuring norwich folk who have served time in bands such as the captain, that band that carl did with neil and some other guy, and fun yeah. men displayed a nous for pop punk mixed with post punk mixed with funk mixed with braid. they did not dally, five songs, on and off. good banter, good times. they sold a cdr demo for 20p to cover costs of the cdr purchase from WH Smiths 2 years ago. men’s best songs were the well drilled ‘calculators’ and the pop punk dynamo of ‘re: your rebranding’ which is a stomping master piece. this 3 piece is tight and hefty and they should go down well elsewhere in the country and i look forward to seeing them again shortly as they are utterly entertaining.
last up was the the absurdly named an experiment on a bird in the air pump.
i expected to have no interest whatsoever in this band, but they stole my mind and heart with a slightly overlong set of primal garage. a 3 piece drum kit with no cymbals, no guitar and at least one bass (sometimes two), saw these 3 long fringed lasses hurtle headlong into garage barnburners that i would liken to miss alex white and the red orchestra. this was ramshackle, blistering and intense. good shit. i couldn’t fathom why they had no records for sale. go see these people if you can, they are up to no good.
and so, i left with satisfaction, this was a fine evening, better than my jaded self expected. investigate these bands if you see them in your local gig listings.