Live Music – Effort, Tall Ships, Three Trapped Tigers – Buffalo Bar, 19/3/11

Shiny new record label, Pink Mist, which combines indie labels Big Scary Monsters, Blood and Biscuits and Holy Roar Records is responsible for this latest exciting UK tour.

First on in Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar is Effort, a newly hatched arrangement consisting of BBC Wales’ DJ Jen Long and James Frost of The Automatic. Informing the crowd it was only their fifth gig ever, I was pleasantly surprised that, while still fairly raw, their catchy indie rock brand was a pleasure to listen to.

From Jen’s point of view, it’s a brave move for anyone to step out from being the critic to the critiqued, but Effort seems to have the potential to do so very successfully.

Tall Ships. Photo courtesy of Jay Springett

Next on were Falmouth trio, Tall Ships (who have appeared on this blog many a time.) Rick, Matt and Jamie lean towards the art-rock side of things, with an emphasis on instrumentals and subverting the usual song formula.

As well as playing crowd favourites like Plate Tectonics and Books, they also mixed it up a bit by playing Ode to Ancestors off of the last EP, There is Nothing But Chemistry Here. Or, they tried at least. A succession of technical difficulties meant that some of the songs couldn’t be finished.

The guys dealt with it  as professionally and quickly as possible, but did still leave the audience waiting around for a while. There wasn’t any bad feeling, I think everyone just felt sorry for them as they were so good when the instruments were working! A finale of their newest single, Hit the Floor, which cranks it up a notch on the energy scale, definitely finished the shaky set with a high.

Three Trapped Tigers. Photo courtesy of Vince Kmeron

Finally, Three Trapped Tigers took to the stage. Promoting their new record Route One or Die, released on Blood and Biscuits Records, the guys gave a consuming performance that veered between sounds of dance, dubstep, post rock and a little bit of hardcore.

Such a mixture sounds like it shouldn’t work, especially not within the same record, but it combines together to make something new and unpredictable. It’s refreshing to see a band who are trying to consistently come up with something different, rather than just something that will sell. Each track takes you on a journey of cleverly executed peaks and troughs in tension, through flavours of different genres, and all with an unfathomable ability to get inside your head to the point where you’re no longer really aware of what is going on around you.

An innovative and compulsive performance to finish on, and a tour well worth seeing if you’re after something a bit different.

Live Music: Johnny Foreigner and Stagecoach. Buffalo Bar, Cardiff. 22.11.10



Luke and Tom from Stagecoach, Buffalo Bar

Newly united label mates, on trendy independent label Alcopop!, Johnny Foreigner and Stagecoach have embarked on their pretty extensive UK tour. I was fortunate enough to see the bands at Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar, where they rocked out amongst the deep red walls plastered with iconic musicians. Maybe it won’t be long before their pictures join them.

As a unique tour selling point, both bands have come together and released a new split 7” single called Big Love In. It’s truly a group effort, as the record features a new track from each band, plus them doing covers of each other’s past hits; JoFo do a great rendition of Stagecoach’s 45, while Luke and Matt from Stagecoach cover Salt, Pepper and Spinderella. It’s well worth a listen, and the combined bands’ artwork looks awesome too.

Luke, Stagecoach, indulging in some speaker-climbing

Stagecoach kicked off in a lively fashion, as always, despite informing us that two of the band members had only made it to the venue five minutes before! Bashing through the best of their musical collection, which has been described as ‘quirky trash-pop’ in Kerrang, my personal highlights were Not Even Giles (Would Say We’ll Be Ok), which can be found on their new split EP, past hit We Got Tazers, and Hieroglyphics. The harmonies were really tight and it was just a really fun performance.

The guys have some pretty self-deprecating audience banter, before playing Map To The Freezer, Luke said “This is a record the radio picked up on. I don’t really like it, but I’m glad they do.”

Nick replied, “Nice to hear you’ve got so much faith in our work.”

“Well, I do quite like it, but it’s only a 6 out of 10. Anyway, shall we play it?”

I don’t know guys, it’s pretty damn catchy; I’d give it at least a 7.5!

JoFo's Kelly mans the Stagecoach drums

For their set finale, Stagecoach didn’t disappoint, and indulged in some good old audience participation. Tom delved into the crowd with his mandolin, there was climbing on speakers, and Matt abandoned his drum kit altogether as Johnny Foreigner’s Kelly promptly took over. That’s team work!

After an quick kit-swap, JoFo were up. It was my first time seeing them play live, I’m not sure how because they are touring fiends having played with the likes of Dananananaykroyd, Los Campesinos!, The Futureheads, and The Subways, I guess I’m a bit slow. My anticipation was definitely rewarded; they are effortlessly flawless. The vocals, the instrumentals, the energy; it’s all there. And it was so good to see Kelly doing it for the girls; there aren’t many who manage to earn respect in the man filled indie-rock world, but at points she arguably stole the show. And that’s not to say that band-mates Alexi and Junior weren’t great too…I particularly enjoyed their discussion about the use of a sweaty towel…

Alexi, Johnny Foreigner, dripping with, er, energy

As for the set list, there was a nice mix of old and new, though the band seemed a little reluctant to play some of their new work, with Alexi promising “Just one more new song and then we’ll play what you paid for”. I personally really enjoy hearing new material that bands are working on; it’s good to have a taster of what’s coming next.  Feels Like Summer and Eyes Wide Terrified were particular favourites; you know it’s a winner when the live performance enhances what you have on your iPod.

And so I left Buffalo Bar with a huge smile on my face, a Johnny Foreigner T-shirt (I can’t resist their iconic monsters), and a sighting of Matt Horne of Gavin and Stacey fame. Hopefully he enjoyed the gig too.