FRENCH KICKS + BLACK NIELSON + FOX FORCE FIVE + ZILCH25th October 2001The former were impressive. Apparently making their debut, Zilch were trying hard, maybe a little too hard, to impress. A tight set of original and catchy guitar pop material was augmented by Jam-type jumps, Townsend-inspired windmilling, brief meet-the-band solos and plenty more attention-grabbing stagecraft. It seemed all a little too self-conscious, but a few more gigs experience will soon have that ironed out. They achieved the most any bottom-of-the-bill support band could hope for - to draw the audience away from the bar to give them more of a listen. Fox Force Five rapidly drove the crowd in the opposite direction. They were playing only for their mates at the front and spent most of their set discussing what song to play next. Amateurish and utterly unengaging. The touring bands showed a similar contrast. We had heard great things about Black Nielson, not least that they were the vanguard of the new psychedelia. What a letdown. "We're Black Nielson from Southampton," the singer-guitarist announced, and that was no doubt where he wanted to be. Before the end of the first song he had persuaded the sounddesk, through various scowls and gestures, to spoil a perfectly fine balance by turning up his guitar and vocals. There was no drummer, and the bassist and other guitarist meekly acquiesced. Fortunately the fourth and final member eked out an interesting array of sounds from his keyboards. Indeed he was the only real source of interest, even more so when he appeared to be straining for an out-of-reach foot pedal and playing the keys at the same time. Despite his calls for help the others ignored him. We can only assume that this poor performance was the result of some dissension in the camp. Thankfully quickly after BN had completed their handful of overlong and already forgotten songs, French Kicks took the stage. The New Yorkers looked very much how I imagined, dressed in the thrift store chic and sporting the floppy pudding bowl haircuts that have been the uniform of all good US alternative guitar bands since sixties garage. Nice red and white colour co-ordination of the instruments too! The drums were set up right at the front of the stage so that lanky singer-drummer Nick Stumpf dominated the stage and towered over the audience. A distinctive feature of the band live is that the rhythm of his expressive vocals follows that of his drumming. His head and body bob up and down as he stamps the pedals and both band and audience soon found themselves infectiously nodding along with him. The guitar playing is also unusually percussive. Not to say they lack melody; some of their songs, especially "Arena", somehow put me in mind of the second Big Star album. They played most of the Poptones album Young Lawyer which itself is a "best of" their last two US releases, plus a new track or two - not a duffer amongst them! We - and judging by their response, so would the audience - agree with Simon's rave review (elsewhere in this issue) and think they're easily Alan McGee's best transatlantic signing since Velvet Crush. The other Ed, Biff Bang Power fanzine. |