GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN
Who
As far as I can gather this is the cheapest gig I've been to since Good Shoes back in 2006, which was the same price, but considering inflation this was cheaper! It's also probably the smallest show I've been to since Euros Childs in 2007, which is an interesting observation as that was around the time I developed a fondness for massive outdoor summer shows, which I'm still finding to be an easier and solid substitute for a hugely draining trip to a festival where all the best bands often clash with each other. Speaking of festivals, this was The Strypes last show before playing Glasto and, according to their website, before this gig they played one night in Bristol then two shows in London, one of which was a matinee performance. No doubt they are attuned to what it's like to be a young music fan, and hopefully they'll stay together and develop and keep this trend up later in their careers. On the night I was very pleased with myself as I'd worked 30 minutes over, paid a quick visit to a Wolves chip shop for tea then headed home, but still had plenty of time to get changed, sort everything out and even found time to read the newspaper and catch up with everything internety. Also I was generally happy to be quite up to date with writing reviews and sorting photos - I didn't want to fall over 10,000 photos behind like I'd done at the end of 2012 - and as an added bonus found a £10 note I thought I'd lost!
Doors had opened at 7pm and I arrived back in Wolves after then but was feeling confident and relaxed so went to Spoons for an Erdinger, yet again watching helplessly as despite my best efforts my pint ridiculously fizzed up. The staff lose some points every time they ask me if I want it in a glass - of course I do, it's the only way to drink it! - and it's a crying shame that Spoons no longer seem to serve Budvar, which despite being lager is a superior choice. I left the pub and wandered round the corner to The Slade Rooms, the bouncer not giving me any hassle but stamping my hand, the stamping being something that hasn't happened to me at a gig for a while. I had no idea what to expect but was greeted by a large - and quite full - bar area and decided to check it out, noting that there were a few acceptable bottles of so-so English beer in the fridges. I went with my old uni favourite Newcastle Brown but inevitably it was served in a plastic cup, and the bar girl politely asked I drink the first sip so she could pour the final bit into the cup. Interesting point actually, as Newcy Brown is served in exactly 568ml (1 pint) bottles, so perhaps they were short changing the customers asking for pints? Nevertheless, it was the least disappointing pint out of a plastic cup I've had in a long time, and the price wasn't too bad either! After a short while reading the Wolves Civic What's On guide I noticed people were wandering through to the next room, which apparently was the venue itself, which was interesting as I'd just assumed it would be upstairs.
The room was quite large - definitely bigger than The Little Civic and the Varsity - but its perfection was ruined by a couple of stupidly placed pillars to the sides of the stage obscuring all views except for those in the narrow centre bit. The Slade Rooms had been open for a good while and I'd been keen to go as the building looked nice, albeit not quite enough to just go and see some random local gig. It's something of a conundrum that The Little Civic and Varsity had closed down but had managed to attract bigger bands to their smaller rooms, and I especially miss The Little Civic as the array of posters on its walls was amazing. Maybe decent live music is just more popular than it was 10-15 years ago, or maybe I was really hot on the pulse back then? Also I have to tick off the venue for not going the whole hog with the Slade connection by naming themselves The Slade Roomz! The stage times were very clearly publicised on a poster and I was surprised to see that The Strypes would be finished by 10pm, but less so that all these posters had been taken away as souvenirs by the end of the show! I was quite concerned about the crowd - being conscious of seeing Get Cape way back in 2007 and feeling like the oldest person there - but there was a decent mix of young and old, with quite a few guys there older than me who'd also fell for the hype. As they're ultimately an old school type of band, in the same vein as Miles Kane, that makes sense to me, and it was good that there were some properly young people as well to complete the mix.
I was wearing my awesome Heaton Park red t-shirt and received some rare praise for it, from a girl who said she'd been at Glasgow Green (2013). I nodded my approval, as that was the one where they'd played Sally Cinnamon. But anyway, first up were support band Wide Eyed, who appeared onstage from a room to the left and played very loudly. In fact the sound was loud all night, and it was quite a contrast to be hearing music in such a small room after so many large gigs. They played a relatively interesting expansive guitar-based thing, were dressed in bright tops with long hair, and one of the guys was wearing the famous Nirvana smiley top. They finished a few minutes late and generally displayed a nonchalant attitude - there were certainly no smiles on offer here! - and my research suggests that they're a Brummie band, fitting in with a trend that NME insists is happening in our second city. They went down reasonably well then I popped out for a loo break, noting that despite the gig room being fairly full that there were still plenty of people wasting their time in the bar. I then easily managed to secure the same space again and waited for The Strypes, noting that their name was proudly displayed on the drum kit in black and white lettering.
It was a refreshing change to only know four songs and to be seeing a band so early in their career as it meant there was little chance of them being self-indulgent wankers and not playing "the hits". Therefore when they bounded onstage to a warm welcome and played three songs I didn't know I was quite content to watch and just form a general opinion. And I'm pleased to report that my judgement was right, they were really good! I'd gone to the effort of bringing along my camera - both wanting to capture the moment and get some more practice in shooting bands - but considering my close proximity I was somewhat thwarted as these were young, energetic guys who kept moving around! And, damn it, they were young. As far as I can gather they're only 15-17 years old - the drummer especially looks young - but they already looked and acted like a finished article, and to see a band so good and so tight at such an early age is frightening. I'd probably have to go back to early Gorky's Zygotic Mynci for a comparison, but sadly as I never saw them in their early days I can only go on their recordings, and frankly I doubt Gorky's were playing this well when they were 15-17! The guys were dressed smartly, in suits but with the bassist wearing jeans, and the guitarist in particular had an excellent rock attitude, with fantastic hair, red shirt, and he was chewing gum throughout.
The singer was wearing sunglasses and an impressive blue shirt, and combined clear/decent vocals with an American-style drawl, and the only clue I could find of their Irish descent was their sheer energy. All of the band had impeccable hair and, dammit, let's face it, they comfortably stood up to Miles Kane and The Vaccines, which pretty much makes them the best new band out there in 2013, which is terrifying considering their youth! Everyone else needs to pull their socks up! The crowd were enthusiastic, and like me were just generally enjoying it. This wasn't quite at an Arctic Monkeys level where everyone knew every word yet. Some people were filming throughout, and one guy even pushed his way in front and seemingly shot the entire show, which made me feel far more comfortable with the relatively modest number of photos I took. Otherwise wankers were thin on the ground, although there was one annoying guy who spent much of the show clapping enthusiastically and looking at the rest of the crowd to join in, rather than facing front and actually watching the show. All things considered I was seeing them at a perfect level, where there was genuine excitement and enjoyment but I was comfortably able to maintain my position slap-bang in the middle as people were happy to watch rather than push. Also the guitarist kept coming in from the right to jam with the rest of the band, and swapping places a bit is always good and made for the prime photo ops.
Someone shouted out something along the lines of "you sexy beasts!", to which the guitarist replied with "right back at ya", but that's a bit dodgy considering how young they were. Even I felt slightly awkward taking photos of them, hoping the police wouldn't come along and take me away! Which does raise a point I'm sure the band are sick of hearing, namely whether they should be in school? Were they on their summer holidays? Are they still in education? Unless they somehow blow their incredible potential I doubt they'll ever have to worry about getting conventional jobs. The guys said that they were trying to think of something positive/interesting to say about each place they played, and that on their first time in Wolves this was easy, as they loved Slade and were impressed to learn that they were a local group. The "hits" commenced with What The People Don't See, a mere b-side to Blue Collar Jane, but as I didn't know the other songs I can't pick out the individual details I'm afraid. The Strypes introduced Hometown Girls as their new single, and advised us it was available on iTunes, and this is the song I'd spotted the night before had been released, but figured I wouldn't have sufficient time to get into it prior to the gig.
This in fact triggered one hell of a run of hits, as it was followed by the excellent Blue Collar Jane, which I'm shocked to learn is an original. I'd just presumed it was a lost 1950s classic rediscovered for our generation, and the fact the band can actually write a song that amazing is just jaw-dropping. However, my favourite is You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover which was next up, and I can confirm that it's a Bo Diddley cover version, but if they'd had written that by themselves I'd be scared! They absolutely blasted the hell out of it too, speeding up a fast song even more, and much of the crowd seemed to know it, which is impressive considering it's taken from an Irish compilation album! The run of hits drew to a close with I Wish You Would, and the band had ticked the box of playing all four songs that I knew - which earns them much goodwill in my book - and now the pressure was off and they could impress us. I shot my one and only video during CC Rider and was thrilled with the picture and sound quality, as I'd expected the volume/size of the venue would reduce all audio to a deafening crackle. The band finished with a trio of cover versions, one of which I may have vaguely recognised, and before the end the guitarist introduced the band, and notably they all swapped places with the bassist in the middle on harmonica at one point, demonstrating their versatility. As they launched into the last song of their main set I realised I'd now missed my train and would have to wait around for a good hour, but I didn't mind. Hell, without me even realising it they'd actually played quite a long setlist too!
Even though they'd played all their hits, I was enjoying myself and it's not right to punish a band for not being self-indulgent wankers by leaving the second they play everything I know. I have done it sometimes, largely at festivals where I have other places to be, but much prefer not to. The band left the stage to enthusiastic applause, and I was pleased that they re-emerged for a one song encore as otherwise I'd have very little to show for hanging around longer and being late home. They finished with a Muddy Waters cover, and as far as I can gather just six out of their 18 songs were covers, indicating that they've gone beyond their original remit of being largely a covers band and were now finding their feet with their own material. They finished a little after the scheduled 10pm, and after admiring the venue a bit and taking a few more photos I made my way back to Spoons, ordered myself a pint of Brains SA on tap and started drafting notes for this review. As I had plenty of time on my hands I think I covered just about everything, and was able to ponder why Brains never tastes as good as that magical first time I ever tried it, but still I keep wanting more.
I then had a bottle of Leffe and was feeling far drunker than I should be after four drinks, and surprisingly the pub was almost deserted. I then waited for my train home and heard a combination of Roses and Strypes songs which made my ears whistle, although the gig probably had something to do with that too. Even though I was home late I then had yet another listen to Man Up from The Book Of Mormon soundtrack before going to bed. The next day I was exhausted and had a headache but it was definitely worth it. I thought this gig was almost worth a 7.5/10 but have to respect the pecking order, as it's almost impossible for a new band with a handful of songs I know to earn the right to be given the same rating as Editors, The Killers or My Bloody Valentine. They performed very well compared to my expectations and didn't disappoint in any way though, and a 7/10 rating puts them alongside Jerry Lee Lewis and Miles Kane in the Hall Of Fame, and unless they do something spectacularly wrong I hope to see them again and they'll have plenty of chance to earn an even higher score. This night gave me a bit more hope that new music is starting to look up after a dire few years, and relief to see that I can still enjoy new acts when a decent one actually turns up!
Mark: 7.0/10
The Strypes
Support
Wide Eyed
Where
Wolverhampton Slade Rooms
When
27th June 2013
Price
£6.00
Who with
No-one
Position
Towards the front
Comments
Here I am starting to write this review immediately after finishing my review for The Killers at Wembley Stadium and just 30 minutes before I start getting ready to go out to see Blondie at Cannock Chase. Yes, it's one hell of a hectic summer I've been having, and this show was quite a contrast to the mega-gigs that sandwiched it! I got tickets pretty much straightaway, the band say you can't judge a book by the cover but I could tell from the pictures, hype and reviews that this was a group worth checking out. Also when the show costs £6 you've got to be pretty dumb to miss out! OK, so the booking fees took the cost towards £10 but it's still an absolute bargain, and it was no surprise that the show sold out quite rapidly. I did ask some mates if they wanted to come, but still being annoyed at their saying no to so many things I simply said "right I'm going, it's really fucking cheap and it's going to be great" and left it at that, it's a good thing I'm independent enough to be happy to see shows regardless, as otherwise I'd have missed a hell of a lot of things! To prepare I downloaded the four songs I could - You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover, Blue Collar Jane, What The People Don't See and I Wish You Would - and really liked them, and although the band were noted for relying on cover versions The Rolling Stones did a similar thing in their early days, and it's a pretty smart way to hone your craft which seems to be working wonders for them!
Setlist
Mystery Man
She's So Fine
I'm A Hog For You Baby
What The People Don't See
I Can Tell
Angel Eyes
Ooh Poo Pah Doo
What A Shame
Perfect Storm
Hometown Girls
Blue Collar Jane
You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover
I Wish You Would
CC Rider
Got Love If You Want It
Heart Of The City
Rollin' & Tumblin'
(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
