Live Review

Bricolage – The Head Of Steam, Newcastle

• 20th Mar 2008

Over in Newcastle the music scene is chugging away nicely. Tonight an almighty pop can be heard gushing out of the Head of Steam onto the pavements – Michael Clunkie the Vinyl Junkie has opened the doors to his marvellous Pop Shop once again. Herein lies carefully selected tracks “to cut hair by” and three new bands from the Northern (and Scottish) underground, turning over quality entertainment.

Two Minute Noodles take to the stage, well not exactly the stage – you can blame the New Vinyls for that…Two Minute Noodles set up on the dancefloor accompanied by an early evening crowd ready to get on down to a slo-mo fairground style Lightning Bolt infused with a DJ Shadow like groove, and prove that the interplay between drums and organ/crappy keyboard goes far.

Next up are the New Vinyls, count ‘em, seven of the little perishers with their range of musical cupboard instruments. For some people, on the surface, they appear to be a bit GCSE music project. But if you get drawn in deeper by their onstage energy and vocal swaps, they mesmerise and demand attention. Tonight the Vinyl’s sound sits in the same classroom as The Hot Puppies and Los Campesinos! And it’s in their favour that they have a charismatic but sensibly disturbing singer. Callum introduces the song ‘Writing Letters to Criminals’ as being about a girl who only dates boys who work for charities containing the line “she interrogates her family on questions of morality”. Their set ends with Callum offering out Nice biscuits to the audience. Nice.

On headline at the Pop Shop tonight are the all singing Bricolage, stomping by on their way home to Glasgow after a mini UK tour, having played sleazy Soho cabaret joint the Black Gardenia night before. This is easily the fizziest C86 edged pop to bubble by for a while, with spiky Vic Godard-esque tunes and vocal harmonies to lose yourself in and get your toes tingling to. Bricolage’s set includes download only single ‘Footsteps’, ‘Lucinda Said’ with vocal hook “tomorrow I’ll be gone”, ‘Temp It Up’ reminding us “it’s a drag”, ‘Back To Earth’ and ‘Night Falls With Vertigo’. Then the Pop Shop shuts up once again, who knows when and where its inter-dimensional doors will open up next.