Back to the Bluetones...
God, the Smiles! The name says it all! Once again we
trekked to the Octagon to catch what we thought would be a good
gig. It was good, kind of, it just got off to a bad start. The
Smiles are nothing more than a good bar band. Competent, yeah. Loud,
certainly, but on sunday night they ran through 6 or 7 standard
recipie pop songs with only a hook or two between them. They
pretty much all sounded like rejects for the theme tune to "The
Littlest Hobo". They're a band with a future in a dive near you...
Geneva, however, were something different. They have recently been touted as a pretty good prospect here in Britain, and despite this being a show plagued with dodgy sound early on and a none too friendly reception, I'd definitely say they're a band with some star quality. They could truly be huge if their music wasn't such an acquired taste. They played a good mix of songs in their set, mostly soft, jangly guitars, with the singers distinctive voice soaring over the top. This producing a neat and tidy set of quite cinematic sounding tracks. Unfortunately the crowd on sunday were mostly the younger element (no offense, but I'm 20 and I felt old amongst that lot) and didn't seem to have the patience to wait while the feedback and bad mix problems were sorted out through the first couple of songs. They'll change their minds when Geneva go top 40.
So, we came to the Bluetones, who finally brought the crowd into an
actual crowd. The Bluetones have always been a pretty laid back bunch, which
is something I've always liked in a band. But with the recent single
"Marblehead Johnson" and the evidence of this show it all seems to
have become too easy for them. They have a very accomplished sound
and a cast iron set of tunes to rely on, I only wish it had been
louder! The singing from the crowd almost drowned out the entire
band! They casually strolled their way through a pretty good set,
which didn't include many tracks from their album, but plenty from
the singles, which are more popular anyway. None really stood out
from the others, except "The Simple Things", which Mark described as
the Bluetones `end of phase 1', and a new track, provisionally titled
"Sleazey Bed Track", which he described as `beginning of phase 2'. TST
sounded great, while SBT was slow and sounded lethargic, placing
itself below the rest of the set.
Naturally though, the 2 highlights of the evening involved the
'tones - fair play since its their tour! In the break before the
encore Scott (bassist) and Eds (drummer) bounded onto the stage
sporting huge black wigs and fake beards (I'm sure I should know who
they were supposed to be, but I can't think for the life of me) and
lauched into a short, fast paced, improvised drum and bass romp,
which included Scott shouting a few vocals and bouncing up and down
on his usual stage spot.
The other, and possibly the best moment came right after the end,
forming the 3rd song of the encore. Called a one off "world
exclusive" by Mark, the bluetones were joined on stage by Geneva for
a version of "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" by the Byrds. If only the
whole show had been this good! - You don't hear many Byrds tunes
performed live with 3 guitars! Its just a shame that only about 1 in
20 of the crowd had even heard of them, oh well...
In short, The Bluetones are secure on their own pop and popularity
slot, they'll still be there next time you look. Geneva are the band to
watch . . .
mea95dad@sheffield.ac.uk