Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Hair-ible band, Incredible Band
On Sunday night I headed up to the Edinburgh Corn Exchange to see the Polyphonic Spree do a gig. The Corn Exchange, for the uninitiated, is basically a big box with a stage at one end with better acoustics than listening to the gig underwater, but only just. It is not the best venue in the world.
But I digress, the horrible band mentioned in our really rather badly punned headline, were I Am Kloot (No bold print for them, that’ll show ‘em). They’re horrible not only because of the fact that they are standard, dull, indie rock, of the kind that only a person truly fearful of surprise and interest would love. No, they’re horrible as they chose to introduce their last song with the phrase, and I quote semi-accurately, “We’re normally very charismatic and up, but we’re not really doing that tonight. Maybe that’s because I don’t like the Polyphonic Spree, I think they’re a fucking tragic outfit”. Which isn’t really very polite.
No matter though as the incredible band mentioned in the headline was, unsurprisingly, the Spree. Still the greatest band currently together (i.e., they’re not Ooberman, or Lush), they rocked my world in a beautiful way. Opening with Hanging Around the Day, which, alas, no longer goes straight into Solider Girl now, they actually made a spirited attempt at sounding good in the Corn Exchange. All the favourites were played, the tartan smock made a reappearance for the encore and Solider Girl was played twice in a row and succeeded in sounding even more excellent the second time.
Basically, they’re fab, and if you have any sort of love and soul in your body go and see them. You will not be disappointed. And if you are disappointed, then you clearly have no sort of love in your body and should go and have a chat with Elton John.
But I digress, the horrible band mentioned in our really rather badly punned headline, were I Am Kloot (No bold print for them, that’ll show ‘em). They’re horrible not only because of the fact that they are standard, dull, indie rock, of the kind that only a person truly fearful of surprise and interest would love. No, they’re horrible as they chose to introduce their last song with the phrase, and I quote semi-accurately, “We’re normally very charismatic and up, but we’re not really doing that tonight. Maybe that’s because I don’t like the Polyphonic Spree, I think they’re a fucking tragic outfit”. Which isn’t really very polite.
No matter though as the incredible band mentioned in the headline was, unsurprisingly, the Spree. Still the greatest band currently together (i.e., they’re not Ooberman, or Lush), they rocked my world in a beautiful way. Opening with Hanging Around the Day, which, alas, no longer goes straight into Solider Girl now, they actually made a spirited attempt at sounding good in the Corn Exchange. All the favourites were played, the tartan smock made a reappearance for the encore and Solider Girl was played twice in a row and succeeded in sounding even more excellent the second time.
Basically, they’re fab, and if you have any sort of love and soul in your body go and see them. You will not be disappointed. And if you are disappointed, then you clearly have no sort of love in your body and should go and have a chat with Elton John.
