So I agreed to go and review this gig before I even knew the name of the band I was reviewing or where the show was such is the gig desert at the start of January. As it turns out, I am glad that I agreed to go and review El Born, playing thir third show on tour to promote the Kangaroo EP that already has more than 40 dates El Born online tour in the UK and USA.
Had I realized this gig was at the Notting Hill Arts Club, I may have hesitated as I really am a bit old for the place and I object every time I go to the demands to show photo ID before getting in. No, I didn't take any and took the "don't you know I'm on the guest list to review the show" attitude before they took my photo, put a bad boy X next to it and let me in like they always do!
While I was at the bar getting a Pistonhead, the singer of El Born said hello (Well done to Beth for describing me to him properly). JACKIE D. WILLIAMS was already on and from the bar sounded like a wimpy girl singing about her problems but when I went round to the gig room I discovered it was actually a bloke singing what at first sounded like rather whiny singer/songwriter stuff in the James Blunt mould.
But the more of it I heard the more apparent it became that Jackie's only problem is a lack of a band and performing the right music for his voice as he would make a great soul/disco singer: even if the last song he sang (Always On My Mind - no, not that one) reminded me rather too much of Glenn Madeiros of all people.
Next on were BELA TAKES CHASE. I had to search online to find out what they were called as every time Bela mentioned their name it was in a mumble. Considering how confident she was that we should all be screaming in ecstasy at the band's music, this was a bit odd, but then perhaps we were all meant to know who they were.
They started with a song that was about how much they tried. Well they did, but do we really need a revival of bands using drum pads in an 80's fashion? The fact they were a bit goth also made them sound like Clan of Xymox crossed with Warpaint or Bat For Lashes.
She introduced Radiate and it was pretty decent; featuring a great guitar solo that was totally out of place with what the rest of the band played. By this point, Bela was getting a bit petulant between songs at the lack of reaction. Did she not know that cooler than thou Notting Hill types don't go wild they just nod and go Yah ok!!?
Collide made them sound like a female-fronted Killers which was OK but it sort of highlighted the fact they don't seem to know what they want to sound like.
Take Your Time featured some nice violin and was a quieter song that suffered as you could hear everyone, ignoring the band and talking over them which just brought out more of Bela's petulance afterwards. If they ever make it big, I get the feeling she would be a real diva and not in a positive way either. The final two songs, however, both had good guitar solos in them and the guitarist was certainly the best feature of the band.
Just before EL BORN were finishing setting up (already quite a few people crowded in front of the stage), the singer Si scrunched up and threw a set list at me, for which I'm thankful as my guess work would have retitled half the set!
They opened with the title track from the band's current Kangaroo Ep and no, it isn't a Big Star cover, but a punchy keyboard-led indie floor filler that got everyone going. Indeed, the gig room was more packed for El Born than anyone else. The singer has just enough Insouciance to really get the place going without falling into that dangerous Gallagher territory.
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You Made Me was next and that saw the keyboards and guitar battling it out in a way that was a bit reminiscent of early Feeder. They then told us it was time for a trip back to 1982, no thanks, that year was bad enough first time around. No great gigs and I was such an uptight little git back then...nah, no thanks, still it's a good song that thankfully didn't have the overproduced sheen of that year or the NWOBHM bombast either.
And It's Still a Long Time went down really well. I think there was one or two people singing along to it as they got a bit of a Wonder Stuff-type vibe going before they gave us their song called White Rabbit that they seemed to be ready to get us all bouncing around to. Either way it went down well and lots of people were unhappy to hear that Now that It's Over was to be the band's last song. It was a perfect closing number for a pretty good set from a promising Indie band that I hope we'll be hearing more from as the year goes on. The audience cheered for an encore but didn't get it as there was still one more band to go.
The club cleared out a good bit after El Born: a bit strange as Headliners Younghusband have been in more than one list of bands tipped for great things in 2014. By the time they came on, the gig room was very sparsely populated which made the fact the singer opened their set by introducing the first number as Welcome To Hell which turned out to be an ok shoe-gazing space rock tune that lacked an insistent riff or anything else to render it memorable.
The dancefloor started to fill with very young college kids who were dancing as if at a disco and at odds with the spacey jams Younghusband served up to make them trip out as if they wanted to be an English Dandy Warhols but without the pop hooks and attitude. In fact, they were totally lacking in charisma which was all the more noticeable as all three of the other bands on this bill had more than enough of that to go around. It was so dismally lacking that Younghusband just looked blank and boring.
Most of the songs sounded pretty similar. OK, that's never stopped such bands becoming big but the lack of any stand out tunes certainly will. When they finished playing they did so to a reaction of total silence and when the DJ put his first record on the crowd just continued dancing the way they had been while Younghusband were on. Only go and see them if you've never seen a good Shoegaze or Space rock band before.
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