Schla La La’s – Manic Cough – Ninki V – The Red Lion London

If it takes me more than an hour to get to a venue in London, then the gig wants to be a bloody good one! When I leave the venue with a long slog of a journey back to civilisation (that’s West London to the uninitiated) I expect to either have a smile on my face or a skip to my step to carry me home. Maybe I set the bar to high, but tonight I thought this would be the case, but horror of horrors it wasn’t to be.

Firstly, the following reviews should be offset by a good 20% due to the frankly appalling sound of the venue. I may have been a bit more generous in what I say if I could have heard the bands properly, so don’t take my criticism as being black and white. On another night in another venue they may have got a more glowing report.

Opening act Ninki V is quirky with a capital Q. Take a couple of keyboards, sampler and a Theremin, set them up for tweeky noises, crank up the giggles and off you go. The second tune of the set is bordering on genius, with a Bontempi keyboard and cartoon animal noises combined with her acrobatic use of the Theremin. Grins are everywhere and it ends with probably the biggest cheer of the night. Marvellous! By the end of the third song though, the joke is already starting to wear a bit thin, and fortunately she realises it and calls it a night there. The brevity of her set doesn’t detract from its enjoyment.

Manic Cough follow, and the tone for the rest of the evening is set. It doesn’t take long for the deafening sound of the kick drum through the PA and the total absence of any guitar in the mix to turn my mood from good to bad. The only thing that can save the situation is a band that are on top of their game with a back catalogue to suit. Bugger! Manic Cough are trying to be clever and interesting in their song construction, but to be honest, as musicians they’re just not good enough at the moment to pull it off. I’ve got no problem if a band want to use an odd time signature for a song, but it helps if they can all carry it. The drummer over-plays way too often and hence drops too many clangers, and with the sound the way it was there was no way of missing them. On the whole their set sounded like a rehearsal room jam session, where quality control doesn’t matter and the ability to hear the vocals isn’t important.

At too many points I thought I was watching a disorganised Fuzzbox gig (Fuzzbox having never actually managed to do a gig that looked organised should give you an idea where I’m coming from here). Where Fuzzbox knew they couldn’t really play very well and had a don’t give an monkeys arse whether we’re any good or not charm, Manic Cough have ideas above their station. They do have some interesting stuff and could be quite good given time and a more forgiving venue, but on this evenings evidence there’s still a lot of spade work to be done.

No worries I thought, the Schla La La’s will save the day with their pop song concealing acidic wit. They do charm the audience with their warmth and humour but fall victim to the vicious plague of shocking sound. I’ve seen the Schla’s before and always been entertained by their songs and attitude, but even they can’t make a silk purse from this sow’s ear. A band with four vocalists and close harmonies need four microphones. Give them three and most of the set ends up in being a game of mic related musical chairs where at any point there is somebody looking around for one to sing into, and as each is set to a different level depending on the singer using them you get a mish-mash of different sounds where one moment somebody is booming and the next you can hear nothing. It is painful to say the least. To say much more about this gig would be a waste as to draw any conclusions from it would be so badly coloured that it wouldn’t be fair.

One thing that still bothers me about them though is their use (or lack of use) of their two bass guitar line-up. They’re no Ned’s that’s for sure, but they could utilise them much more than they do. From my observation one plays the bass line on the bottom two strings, whilst the other place the same notes two octaves higher. Why? It does nothing to enhance their sound (their music doesn’t lead itself to the monstrous bass rumbles of late Pumpkins songs for example) and makes the listener scratch their heads in a “what’s that all about?” kind of way. They could do so much more with them than they do, allow one to lead or play chords possibly, which would make their sound so much more dynamic. Alternatively, they could ditch one, free up stage space and allow one of them to concentrate on vocal duties. The Schla’s are fun, and have carved a small musical niche of their own, but need a much better venue than this to get the best out of them. Disappointing.

So it was a depressing journey home this evening, no smiles and my spring had been sprung. Was there anything positive to take from this show? Nicki V entertained briefly, Manic Cough promised much but failed to deliver, and The Schla’s tried but was hindered by things outside their control, so in a nutshell no. It’s been a while since the tube journey home seemed so long as it was tonight.

Ninki V on My Space
Manic Cough on My Space
The Schla La La's On My Space

(Thanks to Bananas for the review)

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