| This gig, re-scheduled from last November, brought to the
province for the first time a festively rested and tightly wound 22-20’s,
and in tow one of 2005’s highly praised new hopes, Nine Black Alps. A fine treat
for the lucky souls who’d both kept their tickets safe, and braved the evening’s
wintry elements. After Indie fraternity accolades (Radio One sessions,
NME cover mounts), A&R arm-wrestling and the ever increasing size of their recent
tours, Nine Black Alps begin this year with considerable hype echoing around them.
So did their fresh faces look worried? Did they heck! Hailing from Manchester
but sharing only fleeting snatches of that cities particular musical heritage,
on initial impression Nine Black Alps seemed to have soo many influences squeezed
into the first few frantic songs that things could’ve got messy. It was one of
their ‘available’ tracks (they’ve yet to release a single proper) ‘Cosmopolitan’
which brought the first recognisable crowd appreciation, the very now punchy-chord-shouty-bit
sound edging curious punters a step or two forward. The rest of their half hour
set that then rattled the Limelight, whiplashed ears back and forth causing murmuring
to rise and clapping to ensue. So I say to those who came to evaluate the
hype; feel smug at seeing a band many many more people will be talking up in the
upcoming months. To the rest do yourself a favour, get their debut single proper
‘Unsatisfied’. And to us all, let’s hope we see this band back again soon. In
the world of music The 22-20s should be considered old hands compared to their
youthful support act. It was last year when they set out their highly anticipated
and well received stall, with it’s handful of top-notch singles and constant sold-out
tours. They luckily even escaped being lumped in with the Britpop revival nonsense.
What you wonder then does 2005 hold? Well on tonight‘s warm reception and
tip-top performance I’d say it should be an even more successful twelve months
for the band. They played a set of typical head’s down bombast, mixing singles
‘Why Don't You Do It For Me’, Shoot Your Gun’ and ‘Such A Fool’ with album tracks
and sneaky early fan faves. Midway through the crowd were locked into a nodding,
stomping groove, every song getting a louder cheer than the last. By the time
they started stretching the rhythms of set closer ‘Devil In Me’ into a noisy jam
everyone in the place was up on their feet clapping along. With no time wasted
hanging about out the back in the night’s chilling air the band then encored with
another live favourite, their “even more raucous than The Stones version” cover
of Slim Harpo’s ‘King Bee’. I’ve seen this lot more than once but it’s
tonight’s show that was by far and away the best I’d seen; no nonsense, tonnes
of fun, tight, groove filled. On fine fine form. Relevant sites:
http://www.22-20s.com/
Will for Crud Magazine 2004©
Janauary - March 2005 - News Archive | |
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