Tonight in the small damp cold, basement resembling
venue, of the flapper and firkin the New 1920s
will perform their brand of puerile pop based
punk. Wales seemingly has evolved to have, a new
tradition of producing emotional charged American
analogous bands. Rather than sound like oasis
influenced musicians, these bands taken their
inspirations from the deep recesses of alternative
Americana, which would appear bizarre as many
of their contemporaries to be influenced by the
yesteryear Welsh rockers such as manic street
preachers, Stereophonics and such musicians who
have gone on to release snore fest albums, year
after year in more recent times. But it is these
American influenced bands that have seen the spotlight
Funeral for a friend, Bullet for my Valentine,
Kids in Glass Houses the list is endless.
So who are the New 19020s they are not new to
the scene, in fact they are made of members of
former bands who had gained success by supporting
more established bands. The New 1920s an incorporation,
a merger of underground bands like Douglas, The
Take and thisGIRL, and them selves have had supporting
slots with the likes of Kids In Glass Houses and
The Blackout.
The four piece begin their set with a straight
fast paced punk number, which has similarities
to early green day catalogue, but with out the
nifty bass work of Mike Drint. The band continue
to play a few more numbers in the same stratum
as before, the usual is observed with the latest
bands arriving from Wales, the vocals are sung
with a heavy set American accent, although this
is the case one could not fault the vocals as
Colin delivery is suitable to the music, and his
melodies are quiet memorable, even filled with
catchy hooks, something that is essential to a
band, if one wish’s to be ingrained into
the minds of the audience.
As expected the band attempted a bit of repartee
with the audience, and as predictable as ever,
the mischievous voices of Welsh men were heard
not Americans. The amusing conversations were
far from endearing to the audience. At this juncture
in the evening the straight formulaic numbers
were starting to gain tiresome, but then the band
announced “this next song is of our new
EP, its called come around”, surprisingly
this had a slower tempo and already the musical
styling were different, the song started with
a riff which was almost from an indie bands catalogue,
the guitars more crunchy and interesting, even
the break down was more appealing. The band played
a few more numbers with a few demonstrating interesting
tendencies, While others being of the more straight
forward affair.
The band can obviously play live and if you enjoy
American pop punk then you shall love this, but
I leave you with one question, in the decade of
pop punk that has passed and the various hoards
of American bands that have assaults this side
of the Atlantic. Why do the bands that remain
after the golden age of this genre still remain?
Is it since something set them apart from the
others?
The New 19020s 3/5
Review By Ashik |
