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A-Lines/ Kicker
Caxton House Social Club, London
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Article
written by Ged M
Feb 29, 2004.
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It’s probably not done to review one of your own gigs but, fuck it, it was so good, and more objective observers were too pissed to write anything, that it deserves a moment of reflection.
It’s the first real gig by real bands in our Whitehall Building. We tidied away boxes of the Things They Don’t Want You To Know (the truth about Princess Diana, England’s failure to win penalty shootouts against Germany, UFOs – it’s all down to our Lizard Rulers from the 10th Dimension) and, bejesus, we had a stage. So in best Summer Holiday Tradition, let’s put on a show!
Grunge is a condition of bad sound, and there are enough grunge venues around London. But the clarity of the sound tonight (courtesy of Micky K.) meant that you could hear every detail of the A-Lines’ art-garage-punk assault, from Julie’s laser sharp garage guitar riffs to Delia’s sinuous bass lines. Kyra did what Kyra does best, making her expressive face convey half the meaning of her words while her little pixie dance did the rest. Sometimes it was straight on punkrock arse-kicking (as on ‘One Day’ or Love’s ‘Can’t Explain’), sometimes it was more skewed art-punk but whatever it was the crowd lapped it up. Tonight, the Brits cringed a little bit more as Real Music gave them a proper pasting.
After a pause for further inebriation, Kicker came on stage, Phil doing his best club secretary impression as he asked for glasses to be returned to the bar and later, as time was called, asking desperately from behind his kit for more alcohol. The Kicker set just got better as it went on, mixing the singles with a taste of the forthcoming album and a Yo La Tengo cover. A highlight was ‘Doris Dear’ which shares only its increasing melodic urgency and spiralling sense of paranoia with some late 80s indie hit, with which it risks being unfairly compared. They played an encore, partly as this is the last show for at least three months, including the magisterial ‘Since You Left’. In every great set, there’s a moment of transcendence, a pause-your-life-at-this-point moment, when you realise why you spend so much time and money and emotional capital on music; you got it tonight in Kicker’s version of the Northern soul tune, as the band slotted together in some rhythmic nirvana while Jill pushed herself to hit those high, hurting notes that carry the sense of love and loss. Tonight was one of the reasons why we’re not all just worker drones in section 7G. Awesome.
A-Lines set list: 4/ Nothing Personal/ One Day/ On Day One/ More Wax Please/ Nice/ So Agitated/ Sideways/ Can’t Explain/ Wrong Way Home
Kicker set list: One Summer/ New Day Fresh Start/ Get Rid Of Him/ Leave A Light On/ Duet/ Blue/ Don’t You Listen/ Chancifer/ No More Tears/ Something To Do (Yo La Tengo) / Doris Dear/ On Your Floor/ Boy Have You Got It/ Since You Left
Link:
Untitled Document
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