Review of Autolight at the flapper and firkin, November 2000.
Independant review taken from sickmusemusic webzine
"The stage isn't big enough...
I couldn't stop thinking this all the way through the gig...a drummer, keyboard player, a singer and guitarist, another guitarist..and a bass player...that's 1,2...oh it's only five, but you see Autolight fill the space around them....On this particular night they sounded huge...
Sickmusemusic has been accused of liking every band it sees, and raving on about them being the best band around for the duration of that drunken episode...and tonight is another one of those times....because;
(a) Autolight are lovely fellows to natter to...excellent drinking pals.
(b) They pulled this gig off despite having only played a couple ever, previous to this one.
(c) Singer/Guitarist Alexi was sacked from Suede rip-offs "Singles" because he listened to music apart from Suede and Morrisey(!), and has battled back to become frontman of his own band....respect due.
Anyway, with a self financed CD to promote, tonight they blister...
Imagine a band that want to spazz out and be totally experimental, but have enough ambition to tone it down just enough to be commercially viable to a record label...Like Nirvana did with "Nevermind", or Sonic Youth on "Dirty". They have that Placebo sound crossed with The Pixies, but scuzzed up a tad...which is hideous generalisation but that was the first thing that came to mind...They rocked loudly and consistently throughout, with a hell of a lot of falsetto vocals over it all, which could annoy some people but suited me fine at the time...He's got a good voice...might as well use it, eh?
The band appeared to be centred very much around Alexi, the vocalist, with the others firmly knowing their place...off to the side or at the back, but it didn't help having so little room up on stage that the keboard player eclipsed the drummer, Tom, and the other giutarist, Ian. Not that she's fat or anything....Just that she was right across the front of the stage and she was getting a lot of attention due to the general concensus that she was the most interesting thing on stage...Tara was a hit with the boys definitely... So it's an arsehole of a shame that the rest of the band sacked her shortly afterwards...(duuuuh!!)
Both her and Alexi formed a good team up front- she being rather eccentric, smiling wildly like an air hostess on smack, him flouncing and pouting, covered in nail-varnish...
It was just on the right side of pretentious on his part...Alexi loves the spotlight and the roar of the crowd...and after the struggle to get his music back out there...he deserves to ham it up a bit..."
ANGEL OF THE NORTH
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