You know that feeling you get when you watch something like American Idol (don’t pretend you haven’t – we’ve all been hungover/unemployed at some point, needs must etc), and the quality of the voices on there make the British version look like bad karaoke? Yeah, so that’s kind of the feeling I got at this gig – these two acts were harder, faster, better and blew all my ideas of what a good live show should be out the water. Not since I saw Art Brut last year have I been astounded at something so different, and the thing is they didn’t do anything that outlandish.
They were just really f***ing good!
Let’s talk about it…
I wondered down into the ruin-porn chic basement party that is Soup Kitchen, blasting out some very glam NY hip hop sounds, which promptly cut off as The So So Glos took the stage. The combined aesthetic is snotty skater boy, bad ass punk and rockabilly – new award for most handsome man in music going to guitarist Ryan, swoon…Anywho enough about my burning loins. The So So Glos are outstanding musicians, one of the tightest bands I’ve ever seen. They bring amazing musical clarity to songs that could potentially sound like a bumbling mash up of styles with adolescent arrogance. Like a beautiful urban melody, a little bit Ramones in a melting pot of stylistic influences. ‘We Got The Days’ has a perfect anthemic chorus and was my favourite track, dirty sexy but boyish and playful too. I’d love to see them on their home turf; they bought the sturdy looking Mancunian audience to a light hearted bob, but I imagine they could really get a sweaty dance off going in the right circumstances. Loved it.
In the Gig Guide this week, I put Ezra Furman in The Strokes/Libertines strata. I take all of this back, I was wrong. He’s more original, more honest, more ironic, more fun then the strict parameters of indie cool. I mean, he did most of the gig in a dress ffs, stating that ‘pop stars have to be pretty’ with a wink and a giggle. In amongst the convoluted, murky waters of pop, I’d bet a lot of money on him being the most original act out right now. His songs are like psychedelic caricatures of the prom scene in Grease; all brazen horns and bluesy melodies. Tracks such as ‘My Zero’ and ‘American Soil’ reveal an artist that know both how to make room dance while delivering a message. These songs got right in the bones of the Soup Kitchen crowd, causing some serious break out moves, but I reckon once in front of bigger festival audience they will tear the place apart. Smaller framed, almost childlike looking in comparison to his outstanding backing band The Boyfriends, he has a huge stage presence and captures the room like a seasoned pro.
The So So Glos frontman at one point cheekily proclaimed ‘That’s what you Brits do, you take American rock n roll, make it better then sell it back to us’. Well, maybe we used to. But with trans-Atlantic homies producing original, sharp, delicious sounds as I saw that night, we should probably go back to the drawing board and start thinking about what we’re doing. I IMPLORE you, go see these bands while they’re here and be astounded. I bet you a fistful of dollars if you have ears then you’ll like it.
Kate Tittley
Latest posts by Kate Tittley (see all)
- ALBUM: PAWS ‘No Grace’ - June 28, 2016
- LIVE: The Fall – o2 Ritz, Manchester 19.04.16 - April 21, 2016
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