Bzangy Groink

On Wednesday I saw three cool bands for free at the Vaults. Yep - FREE!

First on were History who put on a heartfelt show. There were a few wobbles in places but seeing as this is only their second gig, I think they did brilliantly. They were all in the moment and they were feeling the music they were playing, something that’s often easily lost.

Next were Funfun who played a sharp, heavy, twiddly set. I loved the duelling guitar harmonies, that was lovely. I also liked the bit about looking like old-school You Slut! and, indeed, the lads did look very fetching in their matching outfits.

Last on were You Slut! themselves, confusingly all *not* dressed in black like the YS! of yore. Whatever, they jumped into their set and hammered out crowd-pleasing faves. There was a lot of gurning going on, and not just on stage. It was ace to see people jumping round like loons to YS!’s powertool riffery.

Ahh, what a night!

(Click any of the pics for a gallery of the gig!)

TTPF! - click the pic for more!

The other week, I went to see TTPF! at The Royal, not knowing what to expect at all. I deliberately hadn’t listened to them on the net beforehand as I wanted a fresh, unprejudiced experience.

And I loved them. Knowing some of their tastes, I had expected it to be NMEish indie. But the band they reminded most of was Minutemen. Yep. Go figure.

They were fast, aggressive, funny, dark and, above all, played with the kind of frantic-wank energy most contemporary indie bands just can’t muster. That’s why they reminded me more of Dag Nasty than The Answering Machine. (Which is not dissing TAM, I love ‘em!)

Now, if I was an evil A&R type, I’d just re-style them and shove them out on the punk circuit…

I see so much identikit indie, TTPF! are not that at all.

Go and see them. Now.