Live Review
The Last Republic – Islington Academy 2, London
The Islington Academy 2 is not a big venue, and the room, although not sparsely populated by any stretch of the imagination, is far from rammed. There is also the fact that this is an album launch party; how many people in this venue are, like me, not here through any prior love of The Last Republic?
These are seemingly not things that bother the boys from Wales though, as they storm onto the stage, making their entrance with a level of drama that would not be out of place at a wrestling event. They manage to keep the grandiloquence, if not at stadium-rock-esque proportions, then at least at sold-out significant venue levels throughout. The megaphone into an upside-down guitar’s pick-ups was certainly quite a spectacle, but I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I saw a bass player pumping their fist into the air midway through a song.
This level of spectacle is indicative not just of the band’s affinity with the performing arts, but also of the level of seriousness with which they approach their music. There are elements of post rock in there, smudges of early Muse and even a smattering of Thom Yorke in Jon Owen’s vocal style.
The thing is I honestly don’t feel that this is where their primary strengths lies. Sure, they’ve been tipped for big things by names more illustrious than I, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that a great deal of their set was slightly monotonous and self indulgent. Big, no doubt, but without the context afforded by variety within the pieces, one loses one’s sense of scale. Same goes for the vocals. Owen can belt them out, sure, but the thing that makes, let’s say, Thom Yorke, such a great singer is his ability to effortlessly move from tenderness to cutting frigidity. Such variety was sadly absent in this case.
By playing up to this side of their music they will almost certainly attract a solid fanbase of hoody-wearing, bespectacled and, er, berucksacked post-rock fans through a relentless barrage of support slots. Hell, it worked for 65 Days of Static and they aren’t all that (yeah, I said it).
However there’s more to The Last Republic. I mentioned Muse before, and although the musical affinity is limited, there is something of same propensity to craft popular rock music (no less noble a cause in my eyes). Songs such as ‘Flood the Gates’ and ‘The Fear’ are indicative of what they’re capable of, and I can’t help but feel such a direction would make better use of their talents. I guess what I’m trying to say is, in essence, take yourself less seriously boys.