The initial impression that The Rapture give when they first stroll onto
the stage is fairly, well, relaxed. You get the feeling that their set is
not going to be anything much. But then they play. When a band combines
a saxophone with the obligatory lead guitar, bass and drums, you know the
band’s a little bit special. Even a cow bell and a tambourine have
intermittent appearances during the course of their dance-inducing performance.
‘Get Myself Into It’, their biggest UK hit to date, inevitably
gets the biggest crowd response. In fact, the crowd look like they have
all merged together in some kind of swarming, jumping, hyperactive mass.
Luke Jenner (guitar, vocals) has the sort of high voice which makes you
think he surely must have inhaled some helium at some point during the
course of the night, but it has the girls going crazy. Each time he comes
to the edge of the stage, thrusting his guitar out towards the crowd,
numerous female hands stretch out, desperate to touch him.
When the band launch into ‘Whoo! Alright Yeah… Uh Huh’
and Mattie Safer (bass, vocals) reels out the words “people don’t
dance no more”, the audience in the Carling Academy, which is now
full to burst on the main floor, go into overdrive to prove him wrong.
Dancing along with them is Gabriel Andruzzi (saxophone, percussion, keyboards),
who has been doing some form of funky ‘spaghetti-legs’ crazy
dancing for the duration of their set. He has so much energy when he’s
thwacking his cowbell and playing his saxophone as he moves around stage
that it’s almost as if someone’s turned him into a wind-up
toy running on Duracell batteries.
The Rapture have been noted to not “fit” into a particular
music genre, and the gig proves that they fuse new-wave, electronica,
rock and roll, and no doubt another few genres for good measure, to create
a high-energy, dance-based, hyperactive sound. Despite this, their finish,
and exit, is a little disappointing. The band decides to depart one by
one, which leaves you wondering where the big climax was for such a big,
innovative band. I was left with the sense that the music produced by
the band helps to shroud their lack of personality. Which, apart from
Andruzzi’s funky dancing, seemed to be lacking as they each walked
off, giving a little wave to the crowd.
Review By Fiona
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