Author: Matti Gregory
There are many ways a band can make a show difficult to review. It can be bland without distinguishing features to comment on. It can be impossible to pin down in a way people who weren't present can understand. But this is the first time I've struggled to review a gig because I'm lost for words. Because by the end of their set in a beautiful (and rather small) hall in the middle of nowhere, British Sea Power will make words irrelevant, along with such petty matters as life, possessions, and everything that isn't related to British Sea Power. Before the end they will convert a hundred cynical Libertines fans and contravene just about every health and safety law in existence, as well as put on one of the most memorable performances anyone watching can remember.
To a backdrop of stuffed magpies and ivy purloined from the surrounding environment, the five members of BSP (Yan, Hamilton, Noble, Eamon and Wood) summon up a noise that effortlessly switches from wistful to brutal, from melancholic melody to blitzkrieg post-punk. During the opening "Apologies To Insect Life" Yan will yelp about Russian literature and make sure everyone in the front row gets a good view of his gums while Noble threatens to bring the building down with a slicing guitar riff. New single "It Ended On An Oily Stage" is a better piece of '80s indie than most stuff actually from the '80s, and "The Scottish Wildlife Experience" threatens to instigate a small-scale Hillsborough Incident. But as good as they are throughout the set (and believe me, they are brilliant), a show can only be as good as it's ending. And what an ending it is tonight.
"Rock In A" is stretched out into a twenty minute epic that might become tiresome if ever recorded properly, but here the song is played with jaw-dropping intensity. But even the song is merely a background to the Sea Power boys' antics - Eamon strides through the crowd with a huge bass drum getting hugs from strangers and letting everybody bang out a rhythm with their hands, while Noble clambers onto the wooden roof beams and crawls like a sloth before dropping into the crowd, Hamilton breaks not only two bass strings but nearly his neck as he swings from a chandelier several feet above the floor and threatens to bring the whole thing down, Yan surfs through the crowd pretending variously to be Superman and Biggles and previously ordinary people are suddenly possessed to cover themselves in foliage and scream themselves horse.
As a certain famous individual almost once said: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are British Sea Power.
There are many ways a band can make a show difficult to review. It can be bland without distinguishing features to comment on. It can be impossible to pin down in a way people who weren't present can understand. But this is the first time I've struggled to review a gig because I'm lost for words. Because by the end of their set in a beautiful (and rather small) hall in the middle of nowhere, British Sea Power will make words irrelevant, along with such petty matters as life, possessions, and everything that isn't related to British Sea Power. Before the end they will convert a hundred cynical Libertines fans and contravene just about every health and safety law in existence, as well as put on one of the most memorable performances anyone watching can remember.
To a backdrop of stuffed magpies and ivy purloined from the surrounding environment, the five members of BSP (Yan, Hamilton, Noble, Eamon and Wood) summon up a noise that effortlessly switches from wistful to brutal, from melancholic melody to blitzkrieg post-punk. During the opening "Apologies To Insect Life" Yan will yelp about Russian literature and make sure everyone in the front row gets a good view of his gums while Noble threatens to bring the building down with a slicing guitar riff. New single "It Ended On An Oily Stage" is a better piece of '80s indie than most stuff actually from the '80s, and "The Scottish Wildlife Experience" threatens to instigate a small-scale Hillsborough Incident. But as good as they are throughout the set (and believe me, they are brilliant), a show can only be as good as it's ending. And what an ending it is tonight.
"Rock In A" is stretched out into a twenty minute epic that might become tiresome if ever recorded properly, but here the song is played with jaw-dropping intensity. But even the song is merely a background to the Sea Power boys' antics - Eamon strides through the crowd with a huge bass drum getting hugs from strangers and letting everybody bang out a rhythm with their hands, while Noble clambers onto the wooden roof beams and crawls like a sloth before dropping into the crowd, Hamilton breaks not only two bass strings but nearly his neck as he swings from a chandelier several feet above the floor and threatens to bring the whole thing down, Yan surfs through the crowd pretending variously to be Superman and Biggles and previously ordinary people are suddenly possessed to cover themselves in foliage and scream themselves horse.
As a certain famous individual almost once said: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are British Sea Power.
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