Equitruck: Little Fish, Treetop Flyers, Maria Ilett, Delta Frequency

The
Jericho Tavern,

Oxford

31/01/09

 

This time last year rock duo Little Fish were swimming around in the goldfish bowl of

Oxford playing venues across the city, turning heads wherever they went. Good fortune has since shone on the duo these past 12 months – though not without a considerable amount of perspiration on their parts – and seen them spread their  fins and splash across the big pond to work with top producer Linda Perry in L.A. Tonight, therefore should be rights be something on an occasion back in their home city headlining the annual Equitruck Festival.

 

The devilishly delightful duo are a White Stripes in role reversal – Ju more than a match for Jack White with her passionate guitar playing and punky vocals dredging the depths of musical heroines such as Patti Smith. Like-wise, Nez is a powerhouse of a drummer, attacking the drum-kit with wild abandon, and collectively their musicianship is faultless tonight, the enthralled crowd packing the front of the venue like sardines, mesmerised by the performance.

 

It’s like watching a mutation of their former self though, their set dominated by new songs that are rougher around the edges with heavier drums and bolder riffs that, on occasion, swamp the melodies inherent in their early tunes. One new number – ‘Whiplash’ – joins the dots between The Strokes’ ‘Last Nite’ and some of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ work, Ju moulding and stretching her elastic vocals like putty. It’s no patch on the by now-classic ‘Am I Crazy?’ though, the only early song salvaged for their set for which the biggest cheers are reserved. Ju sounds and looks like a woman possessed as, wide eyed, she implores the audience to tell her whether she’s, “out of her tiny mind”…

 

Earlier Delta Frequency are on a mission to drive the audience out of their minds with their brutally relentless grungy guitar riffs and futuristic electronic wizardry, their frontman thrashing his head around like a string puppet on steroids. Either something is lost in the space between the stage and my ears or an aspirin and a nice cup of tea is really what is needed to recover from that one. In the absence of any such medication, the diminutive fair-haired singer Maria Ilett provides the aural antidote with her anecdotal cheery musical gems. From horn-flecked head-in-the-clouds poppy numbers to more acoustic, reflective tunes, she’s created her own surreal musical world and is inviting us in to share the delights.

 

Slowing the tempo even further, Treetop Flyers combine multi-part sun-drenched harmonies and folky Dylanesque melodies, even veering into western hoe-down territory on occasion. With the dawn just breaking on 09, expect at least some of these acts to have made their mark on the year by the time the dusk sets in.

Joby Mullens