The Sunshine Underground/The Holloways/The Pigeon Detectives/Pull Tiger Tail @ KOKO, Oct. 24

This was a good night to catch the new British acts that NME will salivate over and a chance to check out this beautiful, yet oddly constructed venue. It was billed as ShockWaves New Music Exclusive!. As I found out, ShockWaves is a brand of hair products marketed to British teenagers who think they'll get laid if they use their products. What ended up happening is that the free samples given to us were used to throw at the artists. Good idea, people.

Sunshine Underground closed out the night with one of the most impressive performances from an up-and-coming act I've seen this year. They have that dance rock thing down to a science. Funky bass lines? Check. Heavy, driving percussions? Check. Soaring vocals? Yup. Cowbell? Most definitely. Then what's the big deal? You have to listen and look for yourself.

On appearance alone, they don't look like The Killers. They look like the Arctic Monkeys with their hoodies and baggy pants. They'll get a lot of comparisons with The Rapture with their jerky dance rock rhythms, love of the cowbell and shouting lyrics. When comparing the two bands, I feel that the Sunshine seem more down-to-earth and less-scenester like. The Sunshine have more focus on building layers of percussions and jarring guitars to create full force, powerful sound. Take a gander at the samples on their myspace page.

Of all the bands tonight, they were the ones who acted and performed like a band who didn't need to act like idiots to show how rocking they are. As I'll explain with the Holloways and Pigeon Detectives, the Sunshine Underground didn't have to jump into the crowd, force people to clap or climb on the speakers to get the crowd revved up. The four-man outfit, based in Leeds, is fronted by Craig Wellington, who just owned the night. His vocals were loud and aggressive. On their popular single, "Commercial Breakdown" he hit those high notes with sincerity and crowd went ballistic for him. I was stunned to see how controlled he was on his extended cowbell solo.

The band is a complete package: great choruses, an expert live act that can get the crowd dancing and just musically exciting. My hope is that all the people who like The Rapture will dump their asses in favor of them. No word yet if their album, Raise the Alarm, will be available here in the states. I picked up a copy and in time we'll see if the New York rock kids will flock to them.

I thought the Holloways were the more popular act right now, with their single "Generator" charting, but the organizers saved Sunshine for last. Anyway, it took a while for me to get into the Holloways. I thought they would be more ska and poppy in the vein of Madness and The Specials. "Generator" is kind of a misnomer because it's the one song that's different from the rest of their repertoire. It's fun, happy-go-lucky quality that's instantly infectious. The rest of their song sare not up to the quality of "Generator". Their other well known song is "Two Left Feet," which reminded me of Dexy's Midnight Runners with it's the fiddle part in there.

As a live act, they crowd really took to them, but I was on and off with them. They have a pleasant pop sound but that can only sustain them for a handful of songs. The rest seem like filler to get to the good songs. I liked "Hallelujah I Love Her So" with it's barbershop quartet like chorus. "Sound of the Sunshine" felt passive and not very engaging. The crowd didn't seem to mind, they were moshing to anything at this point. Their guitarist was in full rock mode, climbing on top of the speakers in front of me, then surfing the crowd a few times. You'll aloud once guy, that's it. Twice, you're pushing it.

So I was left kind of disappointed with the Holloways. I was expecting more pop goodness through out, but it they need some better songs to compliment their hits.

I hated the Pigeon Detectives. HATED them. They were sloppy post-punk idiots. They can't even rip off The Strokes effectively. Basically, they start with a guitar riff, beat into the ground, screaming some lyrics about being drunk and repeat for 30 minutes. The frustrating thing about it was that he crowd responded best to them. The moshing started and people were crowd surfing like crazy. I looked around me in front and every loved them. I had enough and went to the back and found people who felt the same way I did, "Who are these wankers?" So it was just a vocal minority. I'm sure this minority also likes The Kooks.

BTW, the lead singer looks like Bill Spooner from The Tubes.

I had to look up who the first act was because I didn't remember. It was Pull Tiger Tail. Bore-ring. They are one of those acts where people won't stand right up front for them -- just leave a little circle in front of them. Don't remember what they sounded like. Oh well.

So KOKO is a really nice venue, which opened a couple of years ago. It's spacious and sounds great. Although there are steps everywhere. I think the venue has five levels of balconies. You'd look behind you and see all these people standing on the railings. You actually enter the place in the middle balony, then you take stairs down to the floor or up for more balcony space.

Comments

[sam]

you sir are a grade A PRICK. take that stick out of your arse and start writing proper reviews bellend

[Lee Evans]

In my own words, you're a "twwwaaaaaaaat"

[Bill Spooner]

How very dare you!

[James]

hmm pretty much agree with the comments above. But to put your review into context to show how stupid it is, you're a music journalist right.. well supossedly anyway, but on the Pigeon Detectives you wrote:

"So it was just a vocal minority. (that liked them) I'm sure this minority also likes The Kooks."

To have any credibility as a music journalist perhaps you should realise that the minority of people that like the Kooks meant that their debut album spent more than half of 2006 in the UK Top 20 and sold more than 1,000,000 copies in the UK alone.

In essence this shows what you know about music, and i think that everyone else thats spent their time commenting on how they dissagre with you higlights that it may actually be you thats in the minority here.

[Jerry]

you get paid to rip the shit out of bands? thats a disgrace

i dont see you on stage performing to thousands?

surely bands success means theyre liked. ur a nob

[hattie]

you're not very good at your job are you.

Pull Tiger Tail - "Don't remember what they sounded like. Oh well."

i thought it was in your job description to actually LISTEN to the music. pathetic.

[chriso]

NOBBA

you twat pull tiger tail are the tits...i think you are probs really fat and you have a tiny willy cos any normal looking person wouldnt be stuck at home writing crap like this x

[Shona]

Did you hit your head off something on the way home! Pull Tiger Tail are amazing and if have some sort of problem with modern music i suggest you get another job! next time you go to a gig try to listen to the music and not get distracted by what a twat you are, you might be able to write proper review that way!

[Shona]

you seemed to pay more attention to the venue then the music!