Live Review

Kubichek! – Camden Proud Galleries, London

• 19th Sep 2007

Camden’s Proud Galleries is an unusually good venue to see live music. There’s an old school must about the place and the audience always seems to comprise authentic music passionados. But even though the elements are favourable for live bands, you will struggle to find one that will play as well as Kubichek did last week.

I always go on about the raft of ‘pretenders’ that perennially pass through our audio consciousness before settling into a life of unemployment and cynicism. And perhaps young Kubichek will meet a similar fate. But if they do, you can be sure they will have had a damn good crack at becoming a band with true individuality and staying power.

They have the driving guitars of Maximo Park, the leftfield vocal aggression of Tom Vek and, at times, the grandiosity of The Arcade Fire. Ok, the song writing doesn’t quite have the x-factor yet, but there is definite potential in these lads at a time where live music is the most dependable income stream for artists.

Kubichek project a fantastic sound from the stage. The music has an energy that lends importance to the occasion and the lyrics are carefully planned to offer a, socially frustrated, everyman narrative. Although, at times, the music tends towards the more formulaic indie patterns, they are much better than your average ,outrageously coiffeured, Shoreditch 4-piece. Well worth seeing live, with the ex-girlfriend who you still want back.