It was another evening back at the Joiners, Southampton's
hottest venue
and one of my favourites. We arrived as Viva Sleep
were playing, and
squeezed into the main room after buying a cheeky
pint. You don't see
this place jammed that often, especially when
the first band of three
are on. But alas, it was busy. Viva Sleep had
potential, but it wasn't
there yet. The music was disjointed dark indie
I suppose, like a messy
Minus The Bear or Hot Club De Paris. And in contrast
to this was a very
Dartz! fairly tuneless voice. Which was a real
shame, he was trying so
hard but it just wasn't working. I hope for his
sake it was just a bad
night. Luckily for him though, he was a fairly
entertaining chap and
thus I didn't mind watching them so much. The
four-piece played for
about half an hour, but nothing stood out that
hasn't already been
mentioned.
Next up were Canterbury, a group I unfortunately
only caught the end of
at a Billy Talent show at the end of 2009, and
was keen to see. As soon
as they started with “Peace & Quiet,”
the Joiners fantastic sound system
burst into life – the sound was literally
phenomenal – and the music was
awesome too. I was absolutely loving it, when
“Take Me Out Of The Wall”
reminded me of something. I was really enjoying
the album itself until
this song where everything went a bit Fall Out
Boy. This happened again
live, but it took seeing it in front of me to
fall in love with the
album. They are fantastic musicians, and it was
particularly Mike Sparks
on vocals and guitar that did it for me. Mainly
his voice – genuinely
impeccable – a bit Mars Volta meets Coheed
and Cambria – but
outstanding. And for a slight guy, his stage presence
was outrageous.
More catchy tracks such as “Set Your Right”
and “Friends? We're More
Like A Gang” ensured that every single person
left the Joiners with the
intention of grabbing a copy of the new album
for free from
http://www.canterburythankyou.com <http://www.canterburythankyou.com/>.
The way I see Canterbury, is that they are Fall
Out Boy, if Fall Out Boy
were British, a bit heavier, and actually really
good. The crowd were
jumping all around, it was one of the best sets
I've seen in a while.
And finally, it was time for Twin Atlantic. The
Scottish four-piece were
clearly thankful of the excellent turn out, as
with much of this tour
compared to past ones. They opened with “You're
Turning Into John Wayne”
an upbeat number, into the brilliant “Light
Speed” which was a
crowd-pleaser – and continued to play through
the album Vivarium as well
as an unreleased track or too. A fuck-tard (sorry)
shouted “mon the
Biffy” which was instantly dismissed –
although Ross the bassist does
look strangely like the hairier Biffy brother.
I suppose the sound is
similar now and again, such as in “Caribbean
War Syndrome,” but there's
no reason to go shouting things like that. There
was even some minor
crowd-surfing, which is quite an achievement in
somewhere like the
Joiners, but that was dismissed by front man Sam
(I wanted to type
fireman Sam,) who said “you're just embarrassing
yourself” or words to
that effect. It was quite amusing really. They
were really good
actually, but didn't quite do justice to the electric
atmosphere that
Canterbury had created. That said, Sam did successfully
stage-drive and
nobody hit the floor. He did return to stage with
a ripped t-shirt. A
Canterbury t-shirt no less. But no, they were
very good and finished
with my personal favourite “Audience and
Audio” which had everybody wall
to wall singing along and having a final little
boogie. A great end to a
surprisingly enjoyable evening.
Viva Sleep - 3/5
Canterbury - 5/5
Twin Atlantic 4/5
Review By Thom Curtis
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