Firebug is one of a number of cool 'small room' venues in Leicester that seem more than capable of putting on good gigs with a decent sound and friendly staff, something the 'legendary' Princess Charlotte managed to do all too infrequently.
Annoyingly I now have three good acts to review instead of one but the good news is two of them are local. DARK DARK HORSE are first up and I could have listened to them all night. For a fairly static live band with a fairly static sound they manage to be perfectly mesmerising.
My understanding is they are more of a studio band based around the production and song writing talents of the drummer and singer but to me they are a band that should be heard live because they also have a great keyboardist and guitarist who add something to the mix and furthermore, like a lot of my favourite bands they are greater than the sum of their parts. The songs are understated but strong and they leave you wanting more. For some reason they remind me of Joy Division/New Order although the best way to describe them would be dark dark pop. Hopefully they will be playing some more gigs soon.
RICH LIST (beware when googling that name) are up next. I checked them out on soundcloud and I must confess I was slightly underwhelmed by what I heard there. It turns out live they are an entirely different proposition with a much more muscular sound. In fact at times it reaches towards industrial. They also have the advantage of having a very good front man with a real stage presence. Not easy when you consider for the most part he is stood behind his laptop and twiddling at the same time as singing. All in all they sound to me like a cross between Gary Numan and NIN so, yes, very 80s but also contemporary as well. Plus the singer appears to have black make-up daubed on one of his cheeks. Cripes!
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Headline act SLOW MAGIC is just one person performing with a laptop but if that sounds like your worst nightmare then think again because the palette is very much brightened by a huge African mask that has its own lighting system and also some drums that get bashed to bits on every track.
OK, it might not be that original but the effort pays off. Because they are putting everything into it, it kind of makes you want to join in. Slow Magic's contemporary electronica has developed well over two albums and you hear all the tracks you would expect, plus others I was not familiar with and all the trademarks are there. Catchy, slightly jazzy hooks, warm beats (plus red hot toms) and quirky samples make for a great night out. I think maybe this would work even better in a Saturday night club environment but it still works here and for that Slow Magic deserves a lot of credit. Catch them if you can over the summer.
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