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We have been at gigs here, much more than once, often
in fact, where the audience has numbered significantly
less than the body count up on stage tonight (nb. we
are just talking numerically here) . And we don’t think
we have ever seen quite so much audience vying for so
very little space either – people spilling out of the
door and down the stairs, still trying to push round
the corner by the bar for a better view right up till
the end. Talk about hottest ticket in town, the air
conditioning’s practically holding an ice pack to its
weary dripping forehead. “This is our first time we’ve
played outside our home country, of Texas,” emotes Tim
DeLaughter, leader and beaming sonic reverend of Dallas’
sons and daughters the 24-piece Polyphonic Spree, “and
London has been amazing.” For us too Tim, for us too.
So just to break this down for you then. You get your
guitar, bass and drum axis. You can have your spirited,
wide-eyed frontman, almost biblical in composure, as
well. Then what about keyboards, horns and maybe a flute
too? Still not enough? Alright, well you can have a
mammoth choral section in double figures and spanning
generations heaped up in the corner like a swaying human
pyramid with a vibrant pulse. And something to top it
off? What about draping them all in flowing white robes
and balancing the whole caboodle on the very fine line
between whiter-than-white psychedelic purity and an
unfathomably high-spirited cult that can only possibly
have been baked up in the Deep South, away from prying
eyes and dirty modernity. Whatever, you have never seen
anything so very out of the ordinary.
And that alone should really be enough recommendation.
But ignore the heartfelt clarity of the performance
for a moment, and the swallow-you-whole enormity of
all before your eyes. Because the songs themselves have
inherited all the around them and are nothing short
of inescapably colossal sonic tsunamis, weaved out of
the most delicate and naïve of sounds. The single ‘Soldier
Girl’ is like the whole of the Flaming Lips’ ‘Soft Bulletin’
condensed into 3 glorious minutes and set closer ‘King’
is a crescendo built out of the moments when a child
first discovers the utter joy of music. It’s all a bit
like Grandaddy overseeing creation. Big bang doesn’t
even go near what they achieve live on a stage. Essentially
then they are The Flaming Lips times 7 and a bit. And
then some. Only so much more. When one bewildered heckler
pipes up towards the end almost the whole of the back
half of the room turn around to rightfully berate him.
You are simply left flabbergasted. There is little point
wasting any more words, this is something you can only
experience for yourself. So do. Soon.
James Berry
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap
04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02 K's Choice Interview
04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02 Breeders - Title K
05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02 Need New Body - Interview
05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton
05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02 Silverchair - Diorama
|  | 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02 Trik Turner - Interview
06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02 12 Stones Interview
07/02 Arolo -Interview
07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02 Cassius - Interview
07/02 Farrah - Interview
07/02 Glassjaw - Interview
07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02 Leaves - Interview
07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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