Photo and review by Robin Seamer
Watching Pope Joan live is like being taken roughly in a high voltage threesome by a pumped-up power-pill hungry pac-man and a deranged speak and spell machine. Old school electro arcade machine sounds jerk off over choppy angular guitars and frantic bass-synth, whilst moustached lead singer Sammy Aaron Jr. commands the rhythmically bouncing indie stomp whilst posing with lean-back rock star moves. Add in a topless drummer and a flat capped crotch-thrusting bass player attired in the clothes of a country gent and you can see that Pope Joan are no ordinary band. Zithromax pharmacy Yet neither are they an extraordinary group. Vardenafilo levitra Whilst their music fizzes with indie flavoured soda stream energy Buy VPXL Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed it lacks the fibre or soul to grab you by Levitra reviews the balls or tits one hundred percent.
‘What we have Viagra Soft Tabs Online to lose versus what we have to gain,’ the Buy Brand Levitra Online Pharmacy band chant on the exultant slow build of Dictator. Right now they need to start gaining as the packed Prince Albert seems a little nonplussed at the Pop Joan take on twitchy art-pop, with just a few of the faithful dancing at the front. Maybe the reason is that each song pounds and thrusts so hard that the net result is akin to watching porn; it’s diverting and mildly arousing for a short while, but ultimately leaves an empty vulgar feeling. There’s also the suggestion that Pope Joan are a little style over substance. No matter how hard they try, and boy do they try, it’s a case of seen it all before. Listing the number of b ands they sound like becomes a marathon, but certainly Foals, Bloc Party, Futureheads, Devo buy drugs online and Fugazi all fit the post-punk bill.
For any band to succeed there are two golden rules. Florida codes bank First to work damn hard Buy zestril and second to be amazing. Buy antibiotics online without prescription. Online Drugstore. Pope Joan work it to the bone, but are a long way from rule two right now. Cheap Levitra online Order Doxycycline They’ll appeal to the cool arty kid who wants to find that niche band in a scuzzy cider spoiled pub, but for the time being that is where they will stay. Levitra generico
Well I was there too and it seems we saw a different show. Most of the crowd seemed pretty enthusiastic from where I was standing near the door. Of course we all like different types of music but this isn’t the first review I’ve read from you since I discovered this site but yours always seem a bit precious and opinionated which is sad. Maybe one day you’ll write a balanced one…. or maybe you should just go and buy your own guitar.
Always good to have feedback Gerry. I hadn’t even heard of Pope Joan if I’m honest, what did you think of the gig?
Vicky
the sound was a bit weird but Pope Joan, came across as a nice bunch of guys on stage and enjoyed doing their thing without taking themselves to seriously rather than follow the folky tradition of the night. I enjoyed it and I just think its important for Brighton blogs to support their own bands….
Hi Gerry I am the writer of this review. I see you don’t agree with me – fair enough, the is world full of different views and music is subjective. It would be dull if we all thought and believed the same about everything.
Yes my reviews are opinionated, if I don’t offer an opinion of what I thought then all you will get is a very dry factual report of the gig. Dull dull dull. I’ll write ‘balance’ where I feel it’s justified, but not where I don’t. I’m not a ‘local’ reviewer, and I don’t live in Brighton as your comment suggests. I love to support bands with positive writing when I feel it is justified (check out my blog Beaking More Waves and you will see I write lots of positive articles about bands I believe in…90% of my stuff is positive) but won’t do it just to ‘support the local scene’. That’s dangerous inward looking, back slapping type behaviour that leads to average artists getting more acclaim than they deserve, and would give my opinions lack of credibility.
I’m sure Pope Joan are nice guys as you say, but being nice guys isn’t enough. Their show didn’t make me full energised, passionate, excited, involved, engaged, or moved in any way.
Therefore I stand by every word I wrote in the above review. You think different and that’s cool. Check out Breaking More Waves (my blog) and you will see that not everything I write is negative !
The irony of this thread is that we have somebody complaining about a slightly negative opinionated review (which wasn’t that negative – the review does say that one of their songs was exultant and that the band worked hard…these are positive comments in my view) and then offering their own negative opinion ! Doh ! Shoot self in foot !
Agree with Robins comments that I would rather read a review that offers an opinion rather than just one that supports every local gig they go to see. Otherwise that isn’t balanced in itself and just reads like a press release. More precious and opinionated stuff sir ! Way to go.
Just proof positive that you can’t please all of the people all of the time
Exactly
There are never really any rights or wrongs with these reviews. Just beliefs and opinions. Nice to have a bit of discussion going on here though. Maybe I should write something really provocative for The Dirty South next time 
and see what happens then….
Haha, *really* provocative….oh dear! I shall look forward to it Robin