First review I’ve done in a while (I really should do more – I go to enough gigs!) but this seems like as good a gig as any to start again with. I travelled alone to this show primarily to see Jamie Hince’s band Fiji. Jamie used to be the frontman for Scarfo, a band I remember fondly from seeing them a couple of times at the Duchess in Leeds. This latest project treads somewhat familiar territory but with the addition of samples, which I usually hate, but were actually used very effectively last night. The most interesting songs for me were the slower, more introspective ones and you could tell that Jamie was putting his whole heart behind every one of them. Jamie is a very engaging and expressive frontman and it was great to see him on a stage again. It was also nice to see Sarah playing the keyboards. Her skills on the keys are sadly under-utilised in Snuff, the other band she’s in (which I hear she’s now moved on from anyway) but they are very prominent here. All in all, I really enjoyed Fiji, much more than I expected to actually, and I really hope they start gigging a lot more over the next few months.

The second band on were Last Man Standing, a vaguely pop-punk sounding quartet. I hadn’t heard anything about this lot before but things looked promising when the singer emerged with a Flying V a la vintage Bob Mould / Husker Du. Sadly, my expectations weren’t met. Instead, the band used every cliché in the book to try and generate some excitement – the singer shouting “Come On!” at every opportunity; the bassist putting his foot on the monitor / barrier every other note; and the inevitable “why won’t you come closer to the front?” I barely resisted the urge to shout the highly original and very amusing “because you’re fucking shite!” Oh, I suppose they were competent musicians but that’s about all they were. In my opinion, they had no genuine soul and they just seem to be in it to try and become stars. They’ll have a long wait I think.

Thankfully, things improved a great deal with the set from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins and his band. Not knowing a lot about the Blues Explosion I didn’t really know what to expect from this set but, earlier in the day, I’d checked out the Grand Royal website and, with mentions of collaborations with Vivian Trimble, former Luscious Jackson keyboard played, it all sounded exciting. Sadly, there was to be no Vivian on stage tonight. However, things were enlivened with the drumming skills of Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto and the vocals of Russell’s girlfriend (apparently!) Amanda. She had a stage presence that quite literally took my breath away and it was hard for much of the crowd to keep their eyes away from her. She seemed to love this attention though and put on a stunning show. Russell also proved himself to be a great songwriter and guitar player in his own right which was good to see. The most exciting moments for me came with the dual attack of his and Miho’s drumming…. All in all, it was all pretty straightforward rock and roll but it was impressively stylish and I was very glad I’d stuck around to see it. Hopefully it won’t be too long before Russell and co hit these shores again.

Tonight I’m off to see Kids Near Water at the Camden Monarch – review to follow (possibly ;-)

--Chris