Young Knives @ Clwb
WORDS & PIC: Sam Easterbrook (Sprout Editorial Group)
A capacity crowd for the top floor of Clwb are out for the return of the Young Knives.
From wasted students, to oi-oi boys and a surprising number of older couples, a result maybe of the Young Knives excellent show at last summer's Big Weekend.
Just the one support act tonight, fitting with the non-flabby directness of the Young Knives' music, a new-ish act called Barringtone, who share an ex-member and similar approach with Clor.
I shall write how they sound.
START Highly Skilled Musicians STOP Frenetic and Kinetic and idiosyncratic STOP START [in ascending pitch] oh but a little proggy with fiddly guitar in spots [Loud] DRUMMER VERY SWEATY?. STOP START more twiddly twiddly guitar paired with twiddly vocals prog prog prog STOP No funk for indie STOP dance-floor domination STOP START clearly tight STOP [Instrumental] STOP but lack that one STOP START [More Instrumental bordering on racket] STOP killer tune STOP.
Killer tunes are no trouble for the Young Knives though, and what can you say about them that hasn't already been written?
Yes, they still look like accountants, with drummer Oliver Askew now sporting a Red Riding 'tasche. And they still have the funny in-between banter and jokes which are as almost as good as their material.
Touring to try out some new material between albums, they make no bones about what the people are here to hear: "the 100 super-hits of the Young Knives" with none of that "Shakin' Stevens at Glasto nonsense".
Old material is played with vigour and vitality while the new stuff (especially Boarding House) advances their tongue-in-cheek, post-punk informed geek rock with thunderous bass lines from the House Of Lords and more variation in tempo.
Everything Falls Into Place even features a Stylophone, which leads to a lone cry of "more Stylophone!" (err..that was me) and disproves my theory that Stylophones are incompatible with Clwb.
Young Knives continue to be refreshingly unpretentious, almost Brechtian in the deconstruction of material and the codes and conventions of rock music.
Highlighting a similarity in structure to most of their early material, lead singer Henry Dartnall asks the crowd to cry "formula" when the acappella bit in a song kicks in. He makes a rod for his own back as the crowd shouts it during most songs. But it's done in jest and adds to the fun of the gig.
Next comes the encore episode. On announcing the last song, someone at the front shouts "no it's not" and points to the set-list. Rather than ignore this, Henry brings into the attention of the whole room: "It’s like opening your presents early".
Further playing with the tropes of gigs, they still walk off and come back on, to ironic heroic cheers.
The gig ends as expected on the two big hits, Hot Summer ("this made us a load of money") and She's Attracted To, which sends the front mental.
There's a new faux slow jam ending, before a quick sharp thrash out before we're ordered to "Stop that and go home".
Which we duly do with a smile on our face.
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