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A Christmas Gimp @ The Fez Club, Reading - 24 November 2004

Abeneezer K: How appropriate - a lesson to be learnt in true Scrooge style, although it smacks of the Law of Sod; any band that you miss at a gig will play a blinding set, will feature some lovely laydeez (combs hair/where hair would normally reside, Swiss Tony style) and your mates will say "Yeah, they were right up your street, you would have loved them, etc.".  Bah!  I’ll make a point of catching Burnt Lychee in 2005, will also try to ignore your curiosity about the bass player’s package packaging, you filthy, filthy, man.  I basically got in t’Fez just as I heard the familiar drum pattern at the start of Yankee Nine Niner’s "1, 2, 3" and rushed up to see what my former band mates were going to be like with their new stunt guitarist Mark, and their new "style".

Ghost of Music Past: Abeneezer, come with me on a journey to your past!  This is how music used to be for you, do you remember?  (Maybe this tenuous gimmick is going to work out after all).  Anyway, the Niners.  I was interested to see how they were doing now.  Since I last saw them they’ve signed a one album deal and changed guitarists - the old one was crap.  Most of the songs were the same as the previous sets although there were a couple of new ones.  I have to say I don’t think this was an amazing performance by them, and that’s not because of the new guitarist.  There were a few sound problems, one of the guitars kept spiking really loudly and unpleasantly over the PA and it seemed to throw the band off their stride a bit.  The sound front of house also wasn’t great which doesn’t help.  As a band the music is very old school 80s rock which is one of those genres that people either love or hate.  What’s for sure is that Henry has a great voice and stage presence and I’m sure they’ll do very well.  They certainly had a lot of people there to watch them.  I’m sure this line-up will do much better gigs than they did at the Fez.  Something I’ll probably repeat about Rebus later in this review… er, well the Ghost of Music Present might.

Abeneezer K: Yeah, my emotions were running high that night (speaking to Tom in the Toitle I realised how unprepared I was for seeing them - I hadn’t really seen or spoken to any of them since I quit the band) but I was blown away by the novelty of being able to watch/hear the songs I knew from the crowd instead of playing them on stage.  I had a big, fat grin on my face throughout "1, 2, 3" and "Funky People".  The sound was rubbish, and the band looked pissed off about it too but they played on regardless.  I don’t know how obvious it was to everyone else but I could tell that they had been rehearsing and rehearsing and practising and basically playing their arses off to get to the next level.  New guitar demon Mark was good, too.  He’d made the songs his own, and made a very brave attempt at playing my solo on "1, 2, 3".. hehehe.. knew I wouldn’t last a whole review without a sly remark!  Seriously though, you’re right - you either love this stuff or hate it.  Henry’s voice was bigger and better than I’d ever heard it before and he reminded me so much of Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes it was weird.  Like Mr Robinson’s body producing Steve Tyler’s voice - I think he could well be a genetically engineered uber-rock singer!  I wasn’t hugely enamoured with the new material I heard though, I thought one of them sounded a bit like a Whitesnake power ballad - which I completely respect, but personally wouldn’t play even if you put a gun to my head - but it’s fuck all to do with me now, I just hope those crazy kids get to tour the world and live the life.  I had two of the most awesome, insane years of my life with them, and I’ll always love them but musically it just ain’t really where I am at.  I’ll be waiting for the PRS to send me a cheque with lots and lots of noughts in it though - and I’m not talking decimal points, ya get me?  *gets back into character*  Bah!  OK, so I was an annoying little stoner who made Neil, Henry, CJ and Tom rehearse on Christmas day, perhaps I could have been kinder and gentler with my distortion channel....

Ghost of Christmas Present: So, we’ve seen your musical past, now let’s look at what you could be enjoying in the present.  Do you remember when we first saw Rebus a couple of years ago?  We enjoyed them and wrote a good review and then they came up to us at the Litten Tree one night to say thanks for the nice review which was the first time we met them.  Since then they’ve worn out one drummer, borrowed another from Return To Zero and finally pinched my old drummer from Sonic Undermind!  Turns out that was a great move.  Since Rob joined they have stepped up a level.  Last time I saw them at the Rising Sun Arts Centre they were absolutely amazing.  They couldn’t quite match that level of quality/intensity this time.  Again the sound was a massive problem.  The first two songs they played, both new ones, were very synth led but the synth was very quiet.  The first one reminded me very much of Bloc Party who I know the band are fans of.  Indeed the vibe of the band generally is in a similar vein.  They are musically clever but not in a pretentious way.  Arty and spikey but also melodic.  They’ve been compared to Gang of Four but I think anyone who does anything vaguely like this probably has been too. 

AK: Yeah, I remember that their first EP "The Broadmoor Music Appreciation Society" was an insane blend of pop, disco, rock artisanery - they’ve just been getting better and better since then too.  I never feel like I’ve had the full "local scene experience" in Reading unless I bump into a Rebi knight.  Chris and Alex have that frenetic energy about them which they manage to pour into their music, and Steve is a quality frontman - almost a throwback to the 80’s when a frontman really had to be a frontman; he’s got that air of suave sophistication that makes me think of bands like.. well, I won’t say in case I give the wrong impression - he’s hella cool, let’s just leave it at that.  OK, I was going to say ABC, Roxy Music and any other band with a smooth frontman (even if Steve’s voice is edgier than Bryan Ferry or.. that dude from ABC).  Like the Yazzle Nizzle Nizzle, the sound quality probably took the edge off the performance but they genuinely looked like they were enjoying themselves up there, and even if I was judging it on the strength of past shows, there were a lot of people around me who were all blown away by the music, if not the quality of the sound.  My compadres for the evening had been very polite, they had not enjoyed Y99er and I think they were expecting to have to sit through more of the same but they were all dancing surreptitiously and properly getting into Rebus.  I love it when I can introduce people to music that makes them think that maybe there are some undiscovered gems out on the local scene, that Reading is far from being saturated with bad punk and metal bands - not that there are many "bad" punk or metal bands out there, just a lot of punk and metal bands!

Ghost of Music Future: I have to confess to being a bit pissed when Desdemona arrived on stage.  This is the first full set I’ve seen from them but I’ve caught glimpses of them before and I immediately seem to be magically transported to the pub in The Wicker Man.  It’s something about that folky swingy sound that sounds oddly sinister.  Mind you, since the Wicker Man I can’t listen to anything old-English folky without being a bit disturbed.  Which is great, has opened up a whole genre for me to enjoy.

AK: Would you believe me if I said that by this point I too had succumbed to Jack Daniel’s finest fire water?  Bless him, he’s always there for me when I need him... But I remember thinking that Desdemona looked really, really good on stage - not just what they were wearing, etc. but the way they totally got into what they were doing and loving the music they were making.  Along with Wire Jesus (who are another gem of a band playing the local circuit) Desdemona are one of the few bands playing this haunting, ethereal, alternatively-vibed music with passion and artistic flair.  When I think of "folk" music, I get a totally different vibe than I do for Desdemona - I played in an "alternative" acoustic band for a while, and I always got into shit for describing us as being "folky", so I choose my words carefully!  This was the first time I’d seen/heard them, and I was loving them from start to finish.  It’s not the sort of music I would usually listen to, but when I come out to a live show I generally say a little prayer to the God that created Frank Zappa’s moustache that I might catch a band who would make it a good night - for whatever reason - and on any other bill Desdemona would have been such a band.  As it was, the Yazzle were a blast and Rebus were fresh and ready for action so the night didn’t need saving.  Desdemona were like the extra thrill you get at the end of a blow-job when your bell-end is hyper-sensitive, post bolt-shooting, but she still insists on trying to suck your bed sheets through your arse anyway.

But I digress.. apologies to the acoustic acts downstairs but my - and I assume Mike’s - attention was firmly planted upstairs and in all the excitement we kind of neglected the other performers.  DJ Pilchard was spinning some amazing tunes in between bands (one of my mates said it was a crime that he had to stop playing for the bands and why didn’t he get his own room so he could play all night?), and there was a very healthy turnout.  Over the years it’s been a blast to see the quality of the nights and the bands playing at Unsigned Showcase nights improve beyond all recognition - this was just another great night of live music that will hopefully see plenty more in 2005.

So, having been visited by the ghosts of Gimpmas past, present and future I’m going to buy an enormous turkey (probably starring J-Lo - arf!), send the ghost of Bob Marley home early so he can decide how he likes his Christmas doughnuts ("with jam in - hope you like jam in too") and generally try to be a nicer human being.  It’ll never last!  Happy Christmas, I hope Santa brings you all that fancy new thing that you were hoping for.

Review by Alex AK Kaupa and Mike Hefferan
Copyright Josaka
1 December 2004