A
return to a serious old haunt tonight; Bath Moles, a pokey old hole in the wall
(literally!) that was a staple on my gig venue list in the 80's and 90's,
hosting the likes of Silver Sun, Tongue, even Del Amitri and The Woodentops!
This time it's the location for the opening night of Indoor Pets' album tour -
yup, that said "album tour", as the dirty pop ruffians and former Get
Inuit boys have only gone and finally recorded one! A mere 5 years in the
making, "Be Content" encapsulates the spunky summery indiepop thrills
of their "live" gigs with a smattering of old faves, whilst also
revealing a more mature, even harder-edged and grungier side with some
strident, anthemic new material. And just to top it off, yours truly gets a
"thanks" mention in the liner notes for "supporting independent
music to the death". I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy etc...!
I
wasn't about to miss this tour, then, so headed off early, parking up along the
A4 around the corner from the venue, after a drive around a nearby park! My
first Moles gig since May 2002 (Jack Drag, gig 558!) and it's changed quite a
lot in nearly 17 (!) years; access through upstairs, and a whole new top bar,
but the same old dingy low-ceilinged downstairs room, feeling if anything even
smaller! I'd missed a very early opening band, but main support Animal House
were on at 8.10. Variously from Australia, London and Shoreham, apparently,
their opener was a polite and innocuous C86ish strumalong indiepop number, and
whilst some subsequent numbers were a bit tougher (their second nicked the
opening drum pattern from The Hold Steady's "I Hope This Whole Thing
Didn't Frighten You" and had a bit of XTC-like angular new wave,
f'rinstance), this was their main modus operandi. The vocalist had some similar
inflections to The Vaccines Justin Young, and I also heard increasing Vaccines
musical influences as the set progressed. Not bad, and certainly making a connection
with this extremely young early crowd, but lacking a bit for me.
Had
a chat with the soundguy, who spotted my Liines tshirt and mentioned he did the
sound at the O2 at their gig on Saturday! Apparently, they asked for no reverb,
no echo, just raw, basic sound. Nice work girls! Found a corner spot down the
front, extreme house left, just in front of Rob setting up; gave him a nod and
left him to get on with it! Just before 9, Indoor Pets' rather extensive
walk-on music kicked off; a medley of numbers with references to vocalist
Jamie's "large hand" (referring to a foam hand for sale on the merch
stand) superimposed! I liked "Gigantic" - "a big big hand"
- and the Fountains Of Wayne cheesy classic "Stacy's Mom", which was turned
into "Jamie's Hand" for the night! A bit self-consciously wacky for
me, but the buoyant young crowd were into it, prompting cheers when the boys
took the stage.
Far
from there being any sense of first night nerves, they were "on it"
from the outset; a short, snappy instrumental led directly into a thrashy,
all-energy "Cutie Pie", Rob's kinetic onstage antics and Jamie's
gabbling vocals an early feature. And next was the surprise; "Hi", a
little understated and slow-burn on CD, morphed into a huge, manic jump-fest
from an already-large mosh, all anthemic, toughened up and grunge-tastic. This
really set the tone; older, faster material such as the utterly ace "All
My Friends", a chaotic "Teriyaki" and a brilliantly helium
"Mean Heart" were, as expected, amped-up, hyped-up and Silver
Sun-esque thrill-rides, but the newer, more considered and mature (hah!) album
numbers such as a Pixies-ish "Heavy Thoughts" and the plaintive,
confessional "breather" song "Dandruff" nevertheless really
took flight, becoming overall arms-aloft, irresistibly hooky and joyous anthems,
sung back by da kids - with gusto! And by this old guy, who was rocking out in
the moshpit throughout, keeping the kids at bay in my corner. Splendid stuff,
and great to see an extra, harder-edged dimension to Indoor Pets' effervescent
crunchy guitar-propelled indie pop.
"Barbiturates"
was a superb roaring anthem, and at its conclusion I grabbed Rob's list (with
his permission, I might add!) and filmed frenzied finale "Pro
Procrastinator" on my phone for my kids, who had been playing its YouTube
video on repeat of late. Breathless stuff to end a rampant, rattling-good 1
hour set. Collected my thoughts awhile afterwards, then brief congrats with the
boys at the merch stand afterwards. Bassist Olly reckoned it was a "weird
one" and took a while for the band to warm to it - not from where I was
standing, mate! Bade farewells -plus profuse thanks for my CD namecheck - then
changed my soggy shirt (full Cleo! Yay!) back at the car before an odd drive
home - a roadworks diversion along the A4 which actually proved quicker and got
me home for 11! All in all, thanks to the excellent Indoor Pets, a triumphant
return to Moles!
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