After our playing visiting Boston friends Michael and Mark some Seafood, they decided to come down to Swindon from their London digs, then onto Bristol with Rachel and myself for the show tonight! This one was busy early doors as free CDs were handed out (we missed out unfortunately), but at least we got in OK as the venue quickly filled up.
First band, Turn, came on in suits but were a cut above last night's similarly-attired Soulwax, playing an energetic push'n'shove style of modish guitar pop not unlike The Jam in parts. A good start, which got better as the main support, Wilt, were very good indeed. Fuzzy guitar and booming vocals reminding initially Mark, then myself, of Bob Mould's work, with the song construction underlying this. For me, they stopped just short of plagiarism (despite their second number being a clone of Bob's "Classifieds"!) so I enjoyed them!
Bumped into - yes, you guessed it - Seafood's bassist Kevin prior to their set; Kev was again well chuffed by the turnout tonight, which rivalled Dark Star's the previous week - and they'd been on "Top Of The Pops"!
Seafood took the stage late, and initially struggled with the poor sound, particularly vocalist David Line. "Easy Path" and "This Is Not An Exit", their 2 choppy, deliriously noisy and fast singles from last year, however got us piling into the moshpit, but Seafood never really got going as we know they can. Thrilling, acerbic, noisy and exciting though they were, they never quite touched the awesome heights of the recent Oxford Point show. The prolonged "Folk Song Crisis" came closest, with the angrily repeated hook of, "I hope the wretched town will fall" drawing breath, before a cacophony of intensity and power to climax the set. An as-ever excellent "Porchlight" (preceded by a conversation between onstage Kev and myself which went thus - Kev: "do you want to hear another song?" Me: "sure, we're just waiting for the feedback to die down" (feedback dies down) Me: "More! MORE!") closed proceedings on a fine high.
We introduced Kev to the Boston boys - who nevertheless enjoyed the set - and explained that a below-par Seafood performance still pisses over most other British bands currently treading the boards!
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