Live Review

Friday @ Liverpool SoundCity – Barfly, Bumper, Monochrome

• 25th May 2009

The night starts in all the young dude’s new favourite bar Peacock with free Japanese beer, and soggy burgers, both of which neatly compliment my expensive taste in whiskey. Then we nip over to Barfly to catch the middle chunk of the Enter Shikari set which in full flow has more crowd-surfers than security. A reluctantly neo-political four-piece thrash through a crowd-pleasing version of Sorry Youre Not A Winner. Singer, Rou introduces it as, ‘The song I hate more than any other. I can’t explain how much I f***ing hate this song.’ Suitably more at home playing the newer tracks from Common Dreads, none of which I’m as up on as the real fans, but in a packed out theatre the St. Albans quartet raise the temperature with a set from hell. Without the production of the recordings, Shikari’s live sound is noticeably raw, compressed and it boils down to a real punk rock expletive of a gig. An awesome live band with a fistful of energy.

Clinic is a band that are not as important as they were but more important than ever before. In the dark cellar venue of Monochrome only two days after the Antipop gig that rocked the rafters Clinic amass their following to drain their musical blood. One of Liverpool’s proudest band’s it doesn’t feel like they belong to Liverpool in the way The Bunnymen, Zutons and Beatles do. Clinic are band of the world, it seems we’ll forever be talking about their appearance on the Letterman show. It’s almost akin to watching the Pixies, drawing no peer comparison yet influencing and inspiring many bands with their unique sound and lasting integrity. There is an underwhelming sensation or irrevocable injustice that bands such as Clinic are not the biggest in the world. It’s easy to get a chip on your shoulder until your realise that not everybody wants to be in a band to be famous. The audience is intimately involved with the music as the original venue promised to be. It’s all too easy to wonder how other bands pack larger venues when this was possibly the most awe inspiring alt indie music at SoundCity 2009. Is it just because I am cuckoo crazy? Is it because Clinic wear masks on stage? Is it because John Peel is gone? Or is it simply because there are no answers in music only notes, beats and words to songs?

After Clinic we mosey on towards Studio and find the shutters down. We’ll leave that there. Luckily My Auntie Sam are striking up across the street in Bumper and the sublime beauty of Liverpool SoundCity cries out like a sunburst as we fully appreciate having bands and bands every-bloody-where. My Auntie Sam must be one the youngest acts at this years festival. In their favour what they lack in experience and depth they plaster over with thick chunks of unbridled energy and upbeat pop rock. The set is, like this review, uncompromisingly cut short as one member jumps through the kit and destroys the drums.