Synthesisers, guitar licks and electro beats are what this inspired and palm-sweatingly original band are about. Having listened to their sound, one might not have guessed they are from the relatively ordinary East Midlands town of Castle Donington. This, for me, is what makes Late of the Pier even better.
The songs they have created are imaginative; they’re not just singing about how their next-door-neighbour is selling drugs or how their girlfriend fucked them over. They have a strange psychedelic, glam rock quality about all their tracks, and while they’ve been likened to peers such as Klaxons and Metronomy, they are also comparable to Gary Numan, Queen and Bowie.
This originality of sound was smacked in the faces of the crowd at Concorde 2 tonight. Surprisingly the crowd was a varied bunch, and not the nu-rave neon-clad clan that would have been expected. They were all different ages, shapes and sizes, which goes to prove the broad appeal of this band. Needless to say the one thing they had in common was their excitement at seeing the band, which allowed them to start off with some slightly slower tempo tracks such as ‘The Enemy are the Future’ and ‘Random Firl’ without any worry of losing the attention of the crowd. Their overall tightness as a band became apparent from the beginning, proving their regular touring has made them into a quality act.
My favourite song, the raucous ‘The Bears are Coming’, started with the lead singer thrashing planks of wood suspended from the ceiling, before moving into a song which is so full of different levels, instruments and weird noises, you begin to realise how bloody bland most other music that likes to be called creative is. ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Space and the Woods’ injected the audience with some post-punk chanting, whilst the riffs and progressively faster beats sent the middle of the crowd into a swirling mosh pit. Finally, the Kate-Bush-meets-Rocky-Horror sounding ‘Bathroom Gurgle’ left the crowd in a thrilled but confused state, drenched in sound, and wondering where the hell the last hour went.
