It must be part of my personal pledge to you that I see the British buzz band of the week when they first arrive in New York. Thus, we have ¡Forward, Russia! out of Leeds, the spastic, stop-on-a-dime post-punk emo rock band that makes you sweaty. Their New York debut had enough fist-pumping, head whipping action that it resembles a Red Bull energy drink multiplied by a thousand.
Led by Tom Woodhead, the four-member outfit look like a DIY-version of a superhero team with their matching t-shirts with the ¡Forward, Russia! emblem. You can call them the Enthusiastic Four. Tom with his amazing microphone twirling abilities, Sam Nicholls with his ability to re-tune his guitar, Rob Canning thumping away on the bass and drummer Katie Nicholls, the calm one of the bunch. They've come together to save you with rock 'n' roll.
It's Tom that made the night memorable, conjuring up the stage presence of a suicidal Iggy Pop. Tom would wrap the chord around his neck to strangle himself, like he's trying to not completely loose it, so he must hurt himself. There were a few times where he would bite his arm between his yelps and screaming fits. I wanted to ask him, "Dude, everything okay?" He must be the music that brings out the beast in him. Between songs, he was a normal chap, thanking people and a telling a story about a Polish man who yelled at the band and called them Commies. It's like when football players are the meanest sons of bitches when the ball is in play. Then when the whistles blows, they dust themselves off and pretend nothing happened.
Their high-powered 40-minute set included numbers, literally, from their impending U.S. debut LP, Give Me a Wall, out in September (if you dig deep enough in the NME.com media player, you can hear the whole album). The other novelty of the band, besides their T-shirts, are that their songs are named after numbers. Tonight they played "Nine," "Twelve," "Thirteen" and "Fifteen, Part 1 & 2". They played fast and out-of-control, definitely blowing everyone away.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed their set, I think this will be the only time I'll see ¡Forward, Russia! live. I get the idea of the band, approve, but I don't think they'll surprise me a second time around. They are what they and they do it well, but I would like to see more variety in future recordings. With that said, please do check them out when they eventually return for a proper tour.
As expected, a lot of my blogger cohorts were around me, Yeti, Village Indian, Loose Record, Wes from PSNYC, Central Village, Sound Bites, Vegan and Ryspace. That's like 5% of the crowd.
Setlist from VI:
- 13
- 15, Part 2
- 12
- 17
- 18
- 16
- 15, Part 1
- 7
- 9
- 11
Excellent review! I saw the band on Sunday this week (almost a full year on) performing brand new songs planned for the next album - and I think you might be down to see them next time they're in New York despite yourself. Bigger, longer, richer - with ¡titles! (sorry) If they were once a couple of armadillos fighting their way out of a galvanised dustbin (OK, metal trash can) they're now more like a family of bears helping racoons escape from a cave. Still mad - but hairier, stronger and a lot more dangerous. They're coming to the US to record the material over the Summer I think, and the sound is promising to be on a more American scale.
Posted by: Sam Saunders | June 06, 2007 at 05:02 PM