Friday 19 October 2007

Popup, Favours for Sailors, 4 or 5 Magicians - The MacBeth

Its a bit nippy out and my petrol guage ticked over to zero on the way here. Dinner was chips from the place next door to the venue, if I'd had time I'd have gone to the Shish restaurant round the corner.

First on stage are the wonderfully named 4 or 5 Magicians, who I'd earlier witnessed playing pool appallingly

So last time I was at this venue, the girl's drink was spiked and since I'm driving tonight I want to play it safe, but alas, they have no bottles of cola.

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Toploader hair and vocals veering between Soundgarden and The Crash Test Dummies. Songs covering the spectrum from Stiltskin to Coldplay. They have a “single” out today, a gentleman on the table next to me sekking CDs. Upon what grounds is it a “Single”? It has four tracks, it is however, one of those wee 3” CDs, I'm tempted for novelty value.

The music drifts a little to far into cheesy 80's rock. But the last song does have sparkles of lyrical genius which makes me smile. “I'm as clueless as the next guy and he hasn't got a clue”

Something weird about where the singsters are standing tonight, tucked away at the left side of the stage, with bass players whilst standing central, not taking advantage of big chunky stage frontispace.

Favours for Sailors, the second band on, look remarkably nervous before they start, but it turns out that's just the way they look. I was concerned also that the bass player had a chord sheet laid out at his feet.

They sounded like the original Radiohead, Pablo Honey era, guitar and prickly raging with teeth, kind of like 'Anyone Can Play Guitar'. I'd thought they were overly concerned with checking sound levels with the soundman between the first few songs, but it paid off, they were great.
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Even the weird between song banter after one where the lead guitarist and bass player both lost their picks.. “Even professional make mistakes, my dad's a teacher and he makes mistakes... Cooking with whiskey, well, its not really cook, its pouring... Cooking's like fancy pouring anyway.”

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Popup headlining, as confident as usual, rather nice gentle and mature music, their constant gigging getting them a following of early middle-aged school teachers dancing courageously and singing along.

Their last song was a bit of a corker, riff ripped from 'Babylon's Burning'.

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Bands
Popup
Favours for Sailors
4 or 5 Magicians

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