Levi’s One To Watch: Bombay Bicycle Club + Flashguns

Some great bands have featured on this denim-clad tour in the past, though tonight it’s more like a showcase for ‘ones to avoid’.

First up is London/Brighton four piece Flashguns. With some local support and the odd catchy burst of jingle-jangle guitar/synth pop, there’s potential, though it’s unfortunately left unfulfilled. These four kids (you’d be forgiven for thinking they were allowed to stay up late despite school in the morning) have a distinctive front-man in the form of Sam Felix Johnston, but this is mostly because of his bizarre on-stage almost-jig as opposed to his vocals, consisting of repeated ‘wooh-oooh-ooh’ noises. Still, despite poor lyrics and sometimes sloppy musicianship, one or two songs stand out for their sub-Pixies raucousness and almost anthemic choruses.

Headlining tonight’s bill, we have fellow London teenagers Bombay Bicycle Club. This band have a lot of hype surrounding them, with, by all accounts, a strong live show marking them as a hot prospect. Starting out well, with a set of Wedding Present-style pop-rock choruses and quiet/loud, Pavement-esque guitar thrashes earning bonus points. It’s a shame, then, that after a while, this all starts to wear a bit thin. The early energetic bounciness soon fades into bland repetition and the largely meandering songs only truly engage when they build to an admittedly impressive calamitous crescendo.

An almost non-existent stage presence is exacerbated by perhaps the worst on-stage quirk ever: the band’s vocalist repeatedly takes a bite out of an apple. He may very well have a good reason for this (improving his vocals somehow), but if not, this heralds a try-too hard smugness unbefitting a young band of such possible potency. The set ends with one late burst of post-rock greatness and rocking out voracity, but it’s not enough to save this ultimately underwhelming show.



Audio, Brighton, 19th October 2008.

Written by Nick Aldwinckle.