DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE +
KAITO +
GO COMMANDO
London Dublin Castle 7th August 2001
Yet another full house at Club Fandango - these Tuesday nights are really taking off. This is my second Go Commando experience within a week, so I'm now really familiar with their stuff! I arrived just in time for their set, it's just a shame the rest of the crowd couldn't drag themselves in from the front bar to watch, because I'm sure they'd have been impressed. 'Barflyin' really comes across well, and 'Homesick' slows things down nicely (it is warm tonight, after all) and I was oblivious to any technical hitches that they complained of afterwards.
Although I'd never seen Kaito before, they sort of steal the show this evening. Spiky indie-punk with bags of energy and bits of Pixies and Elastica thrown in. Two guys (drums and guitar) going mad, with two girls up front holding it together, playing with some funny feedback enducing gadgets and carrying the tunes. I don't know any of their material, though it's a good bet that most of it is from their new album 'You've seen us, You Must have seen us'. One criticism is that the tunes didn't really stay with me, I wasn't exactly walking home whistling them, but as a live band they are absolutely top entertainment. Go and see them.
By contrast, Death Cab for Cutie are super-dull. I've a lot of time for their records (the new 'Photobooth' EP is excellent, and there are a lot of good tunes on the 'We have the Facts' album) but tonight they bored me stupid. To be honest, everything that I recognised I enjoyed, the rest was tedious, and I ended up going into the front bar as it was just getting too warm to endure them. I'm a bit annoyed because I told everyone I knew that they were worth a look, and everyone (even people who like Built to Spill!) hated them. So there.
