So a new venue pops up in the fine city appropriately named
OPEN. According to their website the club room holds 450 whilst
the main venue holds 1550, just short of UEA capacity. Where will Ocean Colour Scene and the various
Zeppelin tribute acts perform now? Who knows? Hopefully in Cambridge. Anyhow tonight we are in the smaller of the two.
The venue looks and
sounds great and apart from the poor draught lager selection, which they also ran out
of, OPEN promises to add a new dimension to the Norwich live music scene. But booze issues aside five local bands for £4 is surely a good way to go about getting the crowds in on a Saturday night. Anyhow due to over-running prior engagements (pub) I unfortunately
missed Eyes and 95% of the Lost Levels set, which is a shame as I have heard
good things about Eyes and the Lost Levels sounded like a different (and
improved) version of the band I last heard about 3 years ago.
So the Death of Death of Discotheque start it off proper with
their frenzied punk-art-nosebleed-rock-pop. The dark
synthy bits sound great, the guitar riffs give me the creeps (but in a nice way)
and they all look like they live on a ward; business as usual then. Mostly
drawing from last years smashing debut album Count Me In, their short set joyously
writhes its way through the most kaleidoscopic art-school
pop. Their set finisher, a rave-rock instrumental based around some looped spaz
keyboard sample, is like a bugle call for any fuck-ups who aren’t already
dancing to get on with it. And they do. Put bluntly DODOD really are fucking
brilliant and their live show is worth 20 balmy minutes of anyones time.
aCivilian continue to fly the flag for Norwich indie music
and do a fine job with a set bursting with influences and ideas. With songs
coming from last years debut album Invention most definitely a band to take
more notice of in the future. And finally Olympians bring the night to an impressive close
with their well constructed melodies and effortless aura. I used to think the
Olympians sounded like the Futureheads but they are far more interesting and
subtle than that. As close to a model of contemporary pop sound as you could wish
for. Set closer Foreign Language with its layered vocal harmonies is surely
the best piece of art-pop heard this side of Kings Lynn in ages. So the Norwich indie scene lives to fight another day. Open, indeed.
Sammy @sickbookies
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