by Ben Clark
photos by Hannah Mesquitta and Mark Hayward
For such a long standing club night whose modus operandi is to debut next year’s greatest bands and DJs, it is always interesting to see how a new city and venue will take up the mantle when it comes to the aspect. With this in mind, Saturday was a chance to see how the Wedgewood Rooms will be adding to the NME’s club night with its second outing as host. With the usual mix of local and established acts, the line up consisted of Lucky One Dies First (LODF), The Planes, Cerebral Ballzy and Jumping Ships. Rotating between smaller side room, The Edge Of The Wedge, and the aforementioned main room, the evening was already displaying a growth since its debut night.
Starting with local hardcore punk act LODF, the Edge was in fine shape. A close to capacity crowd really showed the perfect example what a local music scene can be. With their already strong reputation as a tight three piece outfit, the performance of the evening was never going to be in question. The main note of the set was witnessing the growth of the band with every song receiving a stronger reaction than the last. After seeing many performances from LODF, this is a point of notable development. The big question, come close of set, was when would these boys be making the jump to full U.K band from their current position of city wide favourites?
Following on in The Wedgewood Rooms were The Planes, who find themselves ever so slightly behind LODF on the musical journey but not without a great deal of potential. The first notable point of the set is the relative comfort which the youngsters enjoy on the stage. With more of a swagger than the known indie self-consciousness, it’s clear that influences are changing with the times. With song titles like “See You Next Tuesday”, you get the feeling that Luke Pritchard spent a considerably greater amount of time on their stereo than Ian Curtis. Where this is not a problem for the younger, like minded people in the crowd, it does provide something of an obstacle for those who grew up with the original incarnation of the indie scene. This current issue shows no bind to the boys and more time to develop their sound could see a truly stand out act.
With the local aspect to proceedings complete, it is back to the Edge for what seems to be the international band of the millennium, Cerebral Ballzy. Such has been the national media exposure – let’s not forget that the band have only just released their debut long play – that they have enjoyed a successful summer festival tour of the U.K and Europe and f ind themselves more in demand than most bands in the punk genre. When they take the stage, it is easy to see they are enjoying the current ride they are on. Lead singer Honor Titus immediately reminds the crowd that they are here to party and refusal is not an option. Belting through most of their material at a rate that would make Black Flag seem like prog-rock dinosaurs, moments are only taken to goad the crowd into further anarchy and remind them of Cerebral Ballzy’s four pillars of faith; drinking, girls, pizza and skateboarding. By the end of the set you are sure you have seen something special, but what? For all the excitement and clamouring for presale tickets, at the most all the Brooklyn five piece has done in the last half hour is rip through a punk rock 101 lesson from 1984. They are doing nothing more than Bad Brains, Husker Du and many others have done before – all be it well – which seems to leave a slight amount of disappointment in the amount of praise afforded this band. Having held the opposite of this argument against Planes in this same piece, it may just be a case of the reviewer not being able to have his cake and eat it.
Final band Jumping Ships appear in the Wedgewood Rooms in what has been yet again a seamless turn around – take note all other promoters – and bring their blend of melodic, angular rock to Club NME. It is instantly apparent that they will be, if nothing else, the most interesting band on the bill tonight. Effortlessly merging their clear love of melodies with the nuances of post punk, they produce a well rounded sonic attack with more smooth edges than rough. As each song passes the crowd are treated to honed song craft and a plethora of time changes. As a headline act who seem to be playing second fiddle to penultimate band, they take the depleted crowd in their stride and own the stage as if it were a sell out. With that duly noted, they have been hindered by the line up this evening. It was always going to be a hard task to headline a 400+ capacity venue on any night but with the stark contrast in genres on offer, they are unable to own the crowd for themselves and take the attention away from the lauded Cerebral Ballzy. A return visit to the Edge Of The Wedge on a solo headline night would easily see them assert themselves as the band that may well be next year’s greatest.
