An odd situation, this; a debut gig for a band I’ve seen five times
already! Let me explain… current “live” faves and one of my “pet bands”,
according to my dear lady wife, spiky power-popsters Get Inuit, were contacted
by an Inuit throat singer expressing concern about the band appropriating the
“Inuit” word in their band name in a derogatory manner. Things escalated and
suddenly the band were in the middle of a twitter shitstorm, wrongly accused of
racism, when it was only meant as a throwaway pun…”get into it”… “get inuit”,,,
get it? The only sensible recourse was to change the damn thing, to something
equally throwaway, hence it was now Indoor Pets I was preparing to see for the
6th time! Or is it the first…?
Confused? You will be…! Anyway, to try to regain some momentum potentially
lost by this furore, and maintain their “live” edge honed on recent tour
support slots with Ash and The Big Moon, the Kent boys decided to hit the road
for an early 2018 tour. Thus it was that I hit the M4 to Bristol, circumnavigating
the underbelly of the city to avoid the stupid new road layout, and pitched up
about 8 directly outside. Drummer Rob was manning the merch stand, so we caught
up on recent events before I took a wander upstairs to check out local openers
Socket. A young trio, mining a similar C86 jangly powerpop groove to the
headliners (and sporting their own floppy fringed, bespectacled Jamie lookalike
in the bassist!), their strumalong stuff recalled a toughened-up Chesterfields,
with a couple of later exceptions which were a bit Foo Fighters-lite rockier.
Plenty of work required here, but a brisk and breezy set for openers, Mr. Specs
announcing about this support slot, “we were coming to the show anyway – so we
got in for free!”
More practised by far, though, were main support Gaffa Tape Sandy.
Another trio, they laid down a couple of early strident bluesy rockers
recalling The Subways, then went all Pixies on us, “Pink Neck/ Trainwreck”
featuring some “Wave Of Mutilation”-alike loud/ quiet/loud dynamics, creepy
bass from the female redhead bassist, and some nice atonal vocal interplay
between her and the gregarious, confident guitarist/ main vocalist. Regretting
the choice of woolly socks on a hot stage, he remarked, “it’s a different
season in my shoes…” and similarly made light of some sweat-induced guitar
tuning issues. I do appreciate a singer who sweats for his art, me…! “L’Appel
Du Vide”, my set highlight, came across like a sleazy Tex Mex bar-room rocker,
and generally this was an impressive, hard-rocking support slot, prompting me
to pick up their CDs, to (as the bassist mentioned onstage) help wean them off
their exclusively bread tour diet!
A break back at the car and a quick chat with the ubiquitous Jeff bumped
us towards showtime, as the Indoor Pets boys set-up to the sound of children’s
TV theme tunes over the PA (!), vocalist Jamie spotting me for a quick greeting
before they were ready to go. Back on in short order in front of a 2/3rds full
but appreciative Louisiana crowd, they burst into a ragged “Mean Heart”,
thereafter segueing into the thrashy grunge “Electrify”, prompting a couple of
guys to form a violent and manic slamming pit which, from my stage right spot
down the front, I managed to steer clear of. Appreciate your enthusiasm, boys,
not sure this tiny upstairs room is the right place for it…! “We’re a band
called Indoor Pets and we’re brand new!” deadpanned a tongue-in-cheek Jamie
before a slightly understated “Coping” ceded to a Wannadies-like newie, “Tread
The Water”, bursting with big hooks and crunchy, heavy guitars.
Thankfully very little else has changed from their previous incarnation,
as this performance displayed the usual Get Inuit hallmarks; ragged, youthful
enthusiasm, kinetic energy, splendid helium vocals and harmonies, and even a
curveball or two, in this case a thunderous demolition of Aretha Franklin’s
soul classic “Say A Little Prayer”. “Teriyaki” was an off-kilter, hurtling
delight, before Jamie reflected that, “it’s been a tricky few months for us,”
the subsequent newie “So Soon” impressing with a Silver Sun harmonic opening
leading to a seriously earworm hook, a Summer smash in the waiting, if there’s
any justice…!
A frenzied mosh greeted closer “Pro Procrastinator” to close out a raw
and deliriously thrashy performance. Chatted with the boys on the merch stand
afterwards, all buoyed by the enthusiastic reception and gratified that thus
far, the name change doesn’t appear to have stalled their momentum. Made my
sweaty way home reflecting on this; Get Inuit may be dead, but long live Indoor
Pets! An impressive debut!
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