The Vaccines
The Flowerpot, London
08/10/2010

Ever wanted to topple what remains of the music industry? Band been dropped or given a bad review perhaps? Or maybe you just fancy having a pop at the hacks and execs for the hell of it… Then this Vaccines gig is the place to be – drop a bomb on The Flowerpot tonight, and you’d take them all out. The place is buzzing from around half eight as a whole host of ‘important types’ shuffle in to catch this hyped foursome’s debut London performance proper. By the time they take to the stage, bang on time at 10pm, The Fly is surrounded: record label bosses prop up the bar, magazine scribes and editors balance excitedly on chairs, bloggers fiddle with cameras down the front and radio bigwigs gas away behind us.

Now showcase-esque gigs like this can be a vacuous, sterile and thoroughly depressing experience, but with the arrival of the act everyone is talking about; scrambling over the bar to get to the stage, all icky thoughts of schmooze and idle chatter are put firmly to the back of our minds. Now The Vaccines are not re-inventing the wheel here, this is gritty, epic rock ‘n’ roll in its most primal form, but the effect it has on people and the band themselves is where the magic lies. They kick off with short, sharp single ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ – a minute and a half of stomping Ramones-y meets Jesus And Mary Chain fuzz that will stick in your head from first listen, and the twenty five minute set that follows sees the quartet sweatily shake and convulse their way through a whole host of cleverly crafted songs packed with emotional power and bristling with energy.

A million miles away from the smart pop and arty noodling that many of this year’s finest are currently peddling, The Vaccines are much simpler than that, and as a result more of a direct hit to the head and the heart. Hipsters nod their approval but more excitingly punters are literally falling in love in front of our eyes; lurching, jerking and jiggling around from set start to finish, hugging strangers and bawling the chorus to ‘If You Wanna’ into each others’ faces – this is the demo, of course, that kicked off this whole furore in a blog frenzy over the summer, and we haven’t seen the likes of reactions like these since, whisper it, The Strokes. But hysteria and punch the air anthems – however thrilling they may be – aside, it’s the slower tracks The Vaccines play tonight that really stay with us; two or three numbers filled with depth, soul and longing that treated right, hint at the promise of a truly great debut. Are this band the future of rock ‘n’ roll? They certainly have the makings of it.

Camilla Pia