NME New Music Tour

Tuesday night I managed to convince a few of my girlfriends to join me at the NME new music tour. The gig was at Koko in Camden which is one of my favourite venues. We got there early and so managed to secure a balcony area where we could sit and wait for the bands to start, and which also gave us a great view of the stage. The only band I had any real interest in seeing was Pull Tiger Tail, and I was not disappointed. The Guitarist Davo(??)was your typical cocky, I think I'm hot Brit rocker, and while he irritated the crap out of all my friends I found his antic mildly amusing. At one point he jumped down into the press alley in front of the crowd, I think he was expecting mass hysteria, but the crowd barely reacted. I really started enjoying myself when they got several people on stage with them to help them play one of their songs (will have to buy their CD in order to tell which song it was). It had an awesomely infectious beat, magnified by the extra people onstage thumping out the rhythm. This was the point where they started to look like they were really having fun, and from my great vantage point I could tell the crowd was loving it. I am seriously looking forward to seeing where this band again.

The surprise band of the evening was The Little Ones. I had never actually heard of them before this tour and they blew me away. I loved how they could stand on stage next to these other typically British bands, with their own very unique sound and "rock out". They even encouraged the crowd to throw things at them at one point. The lead singer, Ed Reyes, is incredibly charismatic and I fell in love with him the moment he stepped up onto stage and started wriggling his little butt around. He reminded me of a toddler, trying to explain something very earnestly, all big eyes and cute expressions. The music was incredibly happy and upbeat and I couldn't stop smiling throughout their performance, I actually felt a pang of loss as they walked off the stage.

I don't have terribly much to say about the other two bands. The drummer for the Blood Red Shoes was amazing, but I found the lead singer to be dull and her guitar smashing act at the end of their performance seemed like a childish temper tantrum. I would definitely like to keep an eye on the drummers career, my uneducated opinion is that he should ditch the girl and find someone with a bit more spunk.

The Rumble Strips.... where do I start? 15 minutes into their performance I snuck into the toilet where I overheard two girls discussing the Rumbles performance. The one drunken girl summed it by saying,"it's just shouty bloke music, who would want a Rumbles bootleg album?" I was unmoved by their performance. I spent more time watching the crowd than watching the band, and their music didn't really stir up any emotion. I was pretty much indifferent and we left before they had finished.

All in all I am really glad I went along to this. It is always great to hear new bands live and to find unknown gems! I'm off to buy the Little One's and Pull Tiger Tails albums.