Nov 02 2008 2:00 pm, Pics: Martyn Hicks
With so much going on in LMW, it’s easy to miss the DIY events. The
These ears were put on this planet to hear many things, but the Puppini-styled harmonies of Barbieshop were not amongst them. Brushing them aside, and skipping merrily past the performance-school-garage of face-paint enthusiasts The Long Finger Bandits, our festival really gets underway with the Molotov cocktail of pop that is Town Bike. Technicolor punk anthems explode into Schlesinger-esque choruses, like The Archies scrapping over a copy of Too Tough To Die. Ace.
After agonising over their clash with the always-entertaining Pete Bentham & The Dinner Ladies, we leg it down the road to Korova to catch Barringtone, which turns out to be a good decision. Barry Dobbin’s searing fretwork, a la Stephen Malkmus peering over Frank Zappa’s shoulder, makes for an entertainingly baffling show. A darn good way to kick off the week.
Fast-forward to a night of ‘experimental’ (read: not pop) delights at Mello Mello: evident Sabbath fans Zangief play riffs so crushingly primitive, they may as well have just crawled out of the primordial soup. It’s exhilarating stuff. Musically-amorphous prog sextet The Laze step up next, and proceed to confuse and engage in equal measure.
Zukanican’s jazz-tinged bleepiness excites the head-nodding throng, but The Fly nips across the street to Tito’s for Noiseclub’s terrifying set of improv, er, noise, visually augmented by epilepsy-inducing lasers. Back in Mello Mello, space-rock heroes Mugstar melt the audience’s collective brain with an utterly captivating set of hugely powerful, psych-splattered drones. The bigger venues may be pulling in the crowds, but it’s lovingly-curated shows like these that really provide the goods.
Will Fitzpatrick
