Manhattan Love Suicides/Gresham Flyers/Silver Springs
2 Comments Published by Tom on Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 20:53.
I was surprised how busy the Luminaire was tonight as the Leeds based band Manhattan Love Suicides were in town for their début London show put on by the promotional arm of Lost Music.
First up were Silver Springs. The band didn't do it for me with their take on a folkish, alt. Americana sound. At times the frontman sounded like Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham but their songs didn't grab me by the throat nor warrant my attention and some were a bit too long in length. However they did their job as a lively opening act, fuelled by their friends and relatives in the crowd.
The Gresham Flyers were next up and despite owning a single of theirs I have never seen them live before. As the old football cliché goes this was a game of two halves. The band, who have a poppy guitar/keyboard driven sound complete with boy/girl vocals, demonstrated how good they could be on songs such as the single Shiftwork. However the flip side was that they also had some below par songs in the set which denied them any consistency. The six band members shifted places & instruments throughout and they closed with a song about how special Factory Records was. Luckily they didn't sing about Northside!!!
The Manhattan Love Suicides have won many plaudits with their self titled début album. The band hit the stage clad in black circa 1985/86 with the guitarist and bass player donning black glasses whilst singer Caroline posed on stage swigging from her bottle of red wine. However there was some real substance to their style and the band churned out song after song in a Shop Assistants/Fizzbombs meets the chainsaw fuzziness of The Primitives way. Despite having some slower songs none were aired and this was 23 minutes of fast & frantic noisy guitar pop music, the way it should have be played. My one small gripe was they weren't loud enough. Maybe the soundman's ears had burst in during the sound check!!! Still it was a splendid sound indeed.
Silver Springs on My Space
The Gresham Flyers on My Space
Manhattan Love Suicides on My Space
First up were Silver Springs. The band didn't do it for me with their take on a folkish, alt. Americana sound. At times the frontman sounded like Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham but their songs didn't grab me by the throat nor warrant my attention and some were a bit too long in length. However they did their job as a lively opening act, fuelled by their friends and relatives in the crowd.
The Gresham Flyers were next up and despite owning a single of theirs I have never seen them live before. As the old football cliché goes this was a game of two halves. The band, who have a poppy guitar/keyboard driven sound complete with boy/girl vocals, demonstrated how good they could be on songs such as the single Shiftwork. However the flip side was that they also had some below par songs in the set which denied them any consistency. The six band members shifted places & instruments throughout and they closed with a song about how special Factory Records was. Luckily they didn't sing about Northside!!!
The Manhattan Love Suicides have won many plaudits with their self titled début album. The band hit the stage clad in black circa 1985/86 with the guitarist and bass player donning black glasses whilst singer Caroline posed on stage swigging from her bottle of red wine. However there was some real substance to their style and the band churned out song after song in a Shop Assistants/Fizzbombs meets the chainsaw fuzziness of The Primitives way. Despite having some slower songs none were aired and this was 23 minutes of fast & frantic noisy guitar pop music, the way it should have be played. My one small gripe was they weren't loud enough. Maybe the soundman's ears had burst in during the sound check!!! Still it was a splendid sound indeed.
Silver Springs on My Space
The Gresham Flyers on My Space
Manhattan Love Suicides on My Space
Oh, I wish I could have seen this-- the Manhattan Love Suicides were absolutely amazing all three times I had the pleasure of seeing them in New York!
Thanks for the heads-up on the Manhattan Love Suicides - hadn't picked up on them yet. Glorious noise!