Music / UK

The Chap @ The Spitz 18/02/07

23:27 / 19.02.2007
David Barrington
London

A gig review.

1. Introduction.

Sunday evening, I found myself tiring of watching 'Celebrity Pets on Ice', I wanted to rock.

The good people at Resonance FM needed some cash to stay afloat so they coerced some bands and pushed them into The Spitz in Spitalfields, London with long sticks.

It was a bit civilised to start. About forty people had fallen into the venue and the Dj was playing obscure Chinese children's music, this is normally a good thing, but when the venue is empty you feel like part of a special people club. Someone next to me grabbed a table and some chairs, and soon the whole venue had changed from rock to jazz, full of tables and candles, wrong, but sitting down was comfy.

2. The Bands.

(a) Band 1: Limn. No. of blokes = 4. Format: 2 x Lead guitar (no singing) / 1 x Bassist / 1 x Drummer.

I didn't like them to start with, far too mellow. But as their compression waves went past the restrained but elegant string fumbling gelled nicely with the 'teetering on a pre-work precipice' mood. It seemed like everyone in the band wanted to be Mr Drummer Bloke, so they changed over roles with every song, which was almost exciting, but they quite wisely rota'ed in the best drummers towards the end. The potential Sea & The Cake meanderring improved into a more angular Tortiose on a good day: it got good.

(b) Band 2: Kenny Process Team.

No. of blokes = 3. Format: 1 x Lead guitar (no singing) / 1 x Bassist / 1 x Drummer.

They played what I can only describe as 'Dad-rock'. Intricate, jazzy and occasionally involving and witty chord-patterning. A lot like the pleasure you get from completing a Jigsaw puzzle, or studying the knitting pattern of a complex woolen jumper. The drummer had an unfortunate grimmace of concentration which was distracting. It was their first gig in six years.

(c) Band 3: The Chap No. of blokes = 3. Format: (various combinations of) 1 x Lead guitar (with singing & choruses) / 1 x Bass guitar / 1 x Drummer / 1 x Moog / 1 x Violin / 1 x Cello / 1 x Backing Tape

The only band tonight who had obvious 'issues' with Rock. So to start with they openly mocked the Resonance tag and did a mock improv number with farmyard atmospherics and the drummer deciding to whittle his drum sticks to perfection against his snare drum.

Thankfully two minutes later they launched into their brilliantly-formed and skewed attack on pop/rock, driving a sublime & motorik grenade of knowing subversion into the bonse of Rock's pomposity into a much, much better world. A world that lyrically embraces nothing in particular but the importance of 'proper songs about girls & clubbing' and 'he or she wasn't so hot after all': pop songs that stealthly stop being pop the further they unfurl and twist into wry comments on the absurdities of music, Emerson Lake & Palmer included. Nothing really compares to The Chap, maybe a less minimal Owada or a more energetic version of Oneida, but that would do them no justice.

A tension was building, as the beats got harder, the rock/dance threshold was crossed, some young folks felt compelled to rave, just then The Chap pulled out a Cello.