GIG REVIEW: The Twang @ London ICA 07.03.07
- Posted on March 16, 2007 10:58 AM
- 0 comments
By Danny Stockwell
Finishing second in the BBC’s “Sound of 2007”, Birmingham’s The Twang were unsigned at the beginning of the year and almost unheard on the radio. Fast forward three months and they have a record deal with the label behind the Kaiser Chiefs, a forthcoming, chart-bound single that is already all over the airwaves and an album on its way that gives new meaning to the phrase “Eagerly Anticipated”. On Wednesday March 7th they played their long awaited, sell out show at London’s ICA.
Located in the majestic surroundings of Pall Mall, The ICA is as unique a venue as they come. From outside it resembles an ornate museum, whilst entering the building is rather like entering a library – reception desk and all. Venture past the cool café and bar area and you come to one of the theatre areas that houses tonight’s gig and as you would expect it resembles a warehouse-style club!
With almost no crowd whatsoever, Wolverhampton foursome The Priory kick off proceedings. It is a great shame that many people ignore the support acts at gigs and turn up minutes before the main act come on. I for one always like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and sometimes it pays off. This is one of those nights. Still unsigned, on tonight’s evidence that will not remain the case with The Priory for long. Not to be outdone, The Alones follow and like the aforementioned, these guys look set for much bigger things. The amount of good UK Indie Rock around at present is incredible!
By the time they come off, the venue is about where it should be in terms of crowd capacity. “I thought this was supposed to be a sell out? At least with some space you can a have a bit of a boogie!” remarks lead singer Phil Etheridge as he leads The Twang on stage to a rapturous reception, before being joined by his cohorts in a rousing version of “The Neighbour”. Although the term died not long after its birth at the start of the 1990s, these guys have “Baggy” written all them both in image and sound. It is also no surprise that these guys were on the Dance side of the musical fence before being converted to Indie Rock by Oasis and their sound has a real dancefloor edge to it.
“You know it is incredible to not even have a record out and to be playing to crowds like this” comments Phil and it would seem that the Myspace effect is yet again weaving its magic for these guys as it has for so many already before them. “Either Way” is one of the tracks on their page and is in my opinion their best song. Judging by the response it gains when they play it tonight, I am not alone in this thought. They follow this with a succession of impressive unheard tracks, closing with two tracks that give the aforementioned a run for its money as their best track so far.
Current single “Wide Awake” is the perfect track to announce the band on a not-so-unsuspecting, single-buying public and gets the kind of reaction it so richly deserves (one of this year’s anthems to be). “Cloudy Room” meanwhile, perfectly captures their feel good, Indie-Rock meets Dance vibe and acts as the perfect swansong to a great show.
Believe the hype! The Twang are well on their way to UK superstardom and beyond!
Post a comment
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.seatwaveblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/535
