GIG NUMBER NINETY-THREE
Who
Next door believe it or not fellow Reading attendees Dirty Pretty Things and Larrikin Love were playing at the Academy. Apart from leading to an endless stream of puns (All You Need Is Larrikin Love etc) this led to the more serious debate of if we were at the best event. Even in retrospect I don't have the slightest inkling which would have been the best. The larger gig probably would have been better in some ways but the oversized crowd, expensive tickets and crappy venue might have let it down. I'd also seen both Dirty Pretty Things and Larrikin Love properly at Reading so had little reason to view them again. We hung around and I had two pints of Worthington's until the first support band came on. They were local boys trading under the name of Mayday and I can imagine hundreds of bands up and down the country adhering to their Arctic Monkeys rip-off style, playing very loud and fairly fast. Their most interesting attribute was their amusing appearances, with what looked like very young versions of members from Keane, Arctic Monkeys and Wolfmother (!) playing together. We stood back towards the mixing desk checking out the T-shirts and Nick even acquired a free Mayday CD, which was nice. The only other thing to note about their set is that they slagged off Dirty Pretty Things, which isn't very nice is it now children?
Second up were the much more divisive Xerox Teens. Their music was bearable but what put me off was their supremely smug and downright weird appearance. The guitarist was wearing school uniform and looked like he was a 15 year old and the lead singer hung back wearing sunglasses, trying to look self-assured and confident but in reality looking like a dick, whereas the drummer was pounding along with a crazed yet focused expression on his face! Most bizarre was a guy with a moustache who would have fitted in nicely with Village People, who played some of the songs but finishing up in the crowd applauding the band! I generally thought they were rubbish but at the same time there was something loud and exciting about them that shone through, so I can't dismiss them fully. Considering we'd paid just £6 you can't expect too much and the support standards was as high as much I've seen at much larger venues. I'd been in the Bar Academy before to see Euros Childs and was surprised to see how the venue seemed to lean towards the left: Not quite sure why these small rooms can't manage a simple rectangular shape! The Good Shoes crowd were extremely young and this served to make us feel particularly old. I guess a combination of kids getting into decent music at an earlier age and our own advancing senility was starting to manifest itself. Of course there were still a handful of people freakishly taller than us, and as usual they rudely pushed their way in front before Good Shoes came on!
It was quite a long wait before Good Shoes took to the stage, having to push their way through the crowds thanks to their being no backstage area. They then got down to business and played their set with minimal fuss and banter. At this point it becomes quite difficult to review. They had no gimmicks of any kind and were a fairly standard set up. They sounded pretty much like Reading but less driven, and after ten or so minutes it started to feel just a bit too repetitive and intense. I could still see what had excited me so at Reading but they seemed much more interesting in a smaller dose, and seeing a full set added little to the experience. Not that they were bad. They defied my expectation and managed to become more interesting as they went along, with the quality of songs improving. We Are Not The Same had a fantastic introduction and chorus and All In My Head was greeted like the classic it probably is. For some strange reason I kept trying to remember what their songs sound like and confusing them with The Cribs but after seeing the full set I no longer got mixed up about this. They played their latest single and a small moshpit developed towards the end. We were concerned about getting back in time and teasingly All In My Head was saved until last, albeit leading to a reasonable 10:30pm finish.
I picked up a bright red flyer and we made a dash for the last train. I did feel quite guilty about dragging Nick and Claire along to see a band I'd promised would be amazing, as Good Shoes were probably as disappointing as I could imagine them being. However, they did both enjoy it reasonably, probably more so than me, so my reputation remains intact. I could sense a desire to leave before the end to make sure we got the train but after making all the effort to come out I could never have left without hearing the whole set and in fact the strong ending was probably the saviour of the whole night: Hot on the heels of seeing Embrace and Lordi, Good Shoes would have to try very hard not to be better! I may have been totally exhausted the next day but Good Shoes were good enough... Just.
Mark: 7.0/10
Good Shoes
Support
Xerox Teens
Mayday
Where
Birmingham Bar Academy
When
26th November 2006
Price
£6.00
Who with
Nick, Claire
Position
In the middle
Comments
After attending a festival, especially one as significant as Reading, it was inevitable I'd get into new bands and would revisit some of the acts again on the gig circuit. The most surprising thing is that it took so long to do so and that I'd managed to go to seven shows in succession that had nothing to do with Reading. I'd only seen ten minutes or so of Good Shoes there and at £6 a ticket for a proper viewing I could never turn this one down. I made a little bit of effort to get into their songs but only downloaded All In My Head, We Are Not The Same and Small Town Girl in advance, all of which I heard many times but had trouble drilling into my brain. Although booking months before, we cobbled together a plan at the last second and I had a free train ride, which is fair enough considering there was only one train every four hours and trains back were so bad I'd have to stay overnight in Wolves. I have recorded that I went to KFC in Wolverhampton and drank two beers at Nick's house before we set out and expressed our typical disappointment that Good Shoes were playing Birmingham, and put it down to ignorance of how much better the Wolverhampton crowds and venues are. I was somewhat concerned about the idea of picking up my ticket at the venue using a credit card as verification and it proved to be pretty shambolic. There was an aimless queue where nobody quite seemed to understand what was going on and they eventually gave us a "pass" rather than a ticket and we were allowed to go upstairs, after being abruptly informed that there would be no pass outs!
