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NME TOUR : BRMC Stands Tall, WK Disappoints

BRMC provided raw power that stays in your sub conscious mind, Andrew WK disappoints...
29 januari 2002, Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton (UK)

Tekst: Craig Lloyd

Publicatiedatum: 03 februari 2002

Once again the annual NME tour is appearing at the new improved Wulfrun Hall (an increased capacity of 400 just by adding an extra fire exit to the hall), during its long trek throughout the UK, comprising of four new, up and coming bands the NME believes that their readers should be acquainted with.
Arriving at the venue at 8pm I managed to hear the two and half remaining songs of The Coral’s set whilst waiting to be served my beautiful can of a well know beer, heavily sponsoring the tour. You would have thought that more than six bar staff would have been required, when you have 1300 punters with lighter pockets in the venue wanting to lighten their pockets even more! But no, the powers that be thought we would like to listen to the muffled band in the bar hence missing The Coral and first song of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC)’s set.
The BRMC have a distinct image of darkened clothes and worn out leathers, and a great rock sound. Considering that the band only consist of an electric guitar, bass, drums and of course vocals provided two of the three members, their sound sounds more like a fuller band. The band has two different sounds depending on which member was singing, when it was the bassist, Peter Hayes, Neil Tennant look-a-like with big hair and also sound-a-like, that’s if I try to imagine the Pet Shop Boy ‘doing’ rock, their music was fast paced with hard edged rock guitar and heavy bass lines. Whilst when the guitarist, Robert Turner, graced us with his vocal talent the music went slower and more minimal, not unlike the sound of The White Stripes. BRMC provided a raw power and hook riffs which stay in your sub conscious mind, they are a band you need to see live before you here them recorded.
Now for the band that all the kids are here to see, the Lost Prophets, whose backdrop sign got an ovation when it was raised, some good ten minutes before the band actually appeared. Only having heard descriptions of the band as skater music with drum an’ bass and that they were from Wales… I was curious to hear what they sounded like and wondered how I had managed to avoid them without knowing. The band did look like a typical group of skater kids, skinny as hell and wearing clothing four sizes too big for them, but apart from that they had energy. Half the audience bounced to the bouncy parts of the songs whilst the others moved their heads with the rhythm, and all the front row kids raised the devils sign above their heads in praise to the band. I can’t really remember any of the songs and just remember that they reminded me of a harder guitar sounding 28 Days… but from Wales. The Lost Prophets were pure entertainment, inducing the fans to mosh, surf, throw glow sticks and show off their naked breasts. Plus they were the only band that ended up signing autographs in the bar, a band for their fans and one to look out for in the future.
The headline act Andrew WK or Andrew WKD (after a well known Vodka/Iron Bru beverage) as he’s now being tagged with, has come out of obscurity into the limelight with his single Party Hard. The band had a big introduction and then came on stage and looking at them it seemed like members from eighties rock bands had nicked the Delorian from Michael J. Fox’s drive (mind you, the Delorian belonged to Doc Brown and it was only a film… or was it?), and travelled to the 2001 thinking it would be like the Kubrick film, so that they could inject Metal back into a world filled with classical, how very wrong they were. The only way of describing Andrew WKD is that they are a tribute band for all things metal, and the irony (Bru) runs very thin after just two songs. The Lost Prophet kids all moshed along to WKD, for a few songs finding it fun but then the numbers dropped, a few even started to do Whigfield’s Saturday Night dance in front of me… god only knows how they know the dance! The older audience started heckling the band, the best one being, ‘you should be ashamed of yourselves’, and I could no longer see the band due to two teenagers sucking face for 4 songs, coming up for air and then diving again. By the time the band performed Party Hard, a third of the audience had left and the majority left after that song, not staying for the encore. I felt truly disappointed that the NME choose WKD to headline the tour, when there is so much new exciting music happening on the UK scene today.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/nme-carling-tour/nme-tour-brmc-stands-tall-wk-disappoints/1146/
Meer NME Carling Tour op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/nme-carling-tour