OK, first up is a mental note to self to go find Ellen and say hi next time so we don't review the same thing. This could be fun though as I'm bollocks at doing reviews, that why I post a lot of previews, I can steal other people's hard work. However, I'm a pro, I turned up early (mainly because I like Zissou) and only had a pint of Coke all night so my feelings weren't tainted by piss poor wine and I even took a note book so that I looked like a wanker and could remember things. So, here goes...

The night was put on by Shape who are run by the good members of Attack + Defend. It's actually a bit like what we try and do at Joy, put on some diverse and interesting bands with some visuals and have a night that's a bit different to the norm. Last night there were three bands.

Zissou were first up (either Ellen missed them or didn't want to do comparisons to her own band!), the first thing I notice is that Rhys had grown a shitting massive beard. Quality. Anyway, I've seen Zissou twice before when they've played at Joy and the sound has been a lot better than it was last night. These guys have a lot going on at once, there's 6 of them playing guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, violin, wierd tubey, blowy mini keyboard thing (yeah, yeah, do you know what it's called?) plus 3 of them singing, when they started I could hardly hear the vocals and everything else sounded a bit muddy. It did get better though. The first part of what I've described above is what's going to earn them the LC! parallels. To be honest I just think that they've arrived at a similar place through sharing a lot of influences, there's a bit of Broken Social Scene in there, a bit of Flaming Lips and at times, and this is what sets them apart, a bit of Sonic Youth. Yes, there's duel vocals and catchy indie songs, they're rough around the edges but I don't mean they're not practised, just that they don't want to be a polished pop band. When Jack is giving it his all on guitar and Rhys is hammering his violin they sound like they could easily appear between Mogwai and Slint on an ATP bill. If you want to go and see a band that have all the tunes (and t-shirts) of the indie scene but the mindset of a punk band, check out Zissou.

Next on were The Jelas and I have to say that agree with Ellen on this one, the wine had nothing to do with it. If someone said that I was going to see a discordant rock band with awkward time changes and a singer that looked like Thurston Moore I would kind of assume I was going to like them. If you imagine you have jigsaw pieces representing Captain Beefheart, Pixies, Deerhoof, Moldy Peaches and Sonic Youth that didn't quite fit and needed twatting together with a hammer then you'll get an idea of this band. Nice, off key, Malkmus-esque vocals, a great drummer and talented bassist/hamlet can on stick player were all excellent individually but needed to click more together. As somebody stood next to me said 'if that's them playing, I'd hate to hear them practise'. Maybe they just weren't my thing as they seemed to go down well with the rest of the (very full) venue.

And now Yacht. I have to admit that as soon as they started I thought 'The Death Set' to myself. There are definite similarities, shouty vocals over what is essentially a karaoke track, mostly bass and beat driven, occasional guitar and on the second track a tinkly piano that I briefly thought might turn them into Utah Saints (U-U-U-Utah Saints). The general song structure seemed to consist of call and response, repetitive boy/girl vocals but to be honest, nobody cared because although I'm not going to rush out and buy the album, they were wildly entertaining and did everything with a smile and a sense of humour. There was some classy dancing that's synchronicity put Tom Daley and his whinging diving partner to shame. There was also an inter-song geography lesson showing us where they were from, USA, West Coast, Portland, North Portland, right down to a photo of their house and their address (4008, N Mississippi Avenue #4, Portland, 97227-1114). A friend of mine thought they 'were like Nathan Barley dressed by the cast of Mad Max', they weren't his thing. They were fun though, there was a lot of messing about with a laptop and a mid-set Q&A but as the band themselves said 'professionalism - who wants it, who needs it, fuck you'.

Labels: clwb ifor bach, shape, the jelas, yacht, zissou