Liverpool Music Week 3

The first full week of Liverpool Music Week has been nothing short of fantastic. Established artists like Daniel Johnston, Super Furry Animals, The Enemy and current Fly cover stars Wild Beasts were all on form, but it’s the bands tucked away in the support slots that have really impressed.

On Tuesday, in support of Daniel Johnston was a.P.A.t.T, an incredibly weird local seven-piece. Dressed head to toe in white linens and doing some fantastic onstage acrobatics; they look like hospitalised ninjas. Their songs contain about six different genres played one after the other, and sometimes together. They’ll be blipping and beeping like Pac Man one moment and will burst in with ear-splitting thrash-metal guitars the next. There’s the off-balance ska of ‘Martin’s Quest’ and the ambient jazz of ‘The Stars Spell Out Your Name’. However, it hardly seems worth mentioning song titles since you’d never recognize them through all the noise and confusion of their live show.

Also supporting Johnston was Novice Mathematic. Their chanty pop-punk lacks rhythm, but still maintain a cool indie rock edge and they almost stray into Spinal Tap’s parody of rock/metal clichés with their closing song ‘Love’s White Missiles’. Wild Beasts played to a squashed (and almost violent) Alma De Cuba show, picking their favourite tunes from their back-catalogue, but support act Bagheera really caught our attention. They play thought-provoking, mellow folk. On Wednesday, Bombay Bicycle Club played a ridiculously over-subscribed Masque show; people were queuing to see BBC, which set off a domino-effect delay on all of the other bands’ shows at the venue. As a result, Broken Records’ uncompromising and cathartic folk songs began almost an hour later than billed and Israel’s The Apples’ ultra jazz/DJ weirdness carried on late into the night.

Next week will again be brimming with top gigs worth leaving the house for. On Tuesday go and see Chrome Hoof or Calvin Harris and on Wednesday there’s a choice between Dananananaykroyd and The Holloways. The latter is one that The Fly will probably be avoiding, since the reaction to our 1/5 review of ‘No Smoke, No Mirrors’ means we’re probably no longer on their Christmas card list. The Rumble Strips seem to be the only logical choice for Thursday and The Bays or Hot Club De Paris are the best bet for Friday. By all means avoid Tramp Attack; they’re average jangly Scouse drivel. See you down the front. Or more likely, slumped over the bar somewhere.

Mike Doherty