The Faders gig...

You know the last time I was in a club at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon I must have been 14 – dressed head to toe in Nike, and battling rival break dancing crews to Paul Hardcastle’s “19” at Wakefield’s ‘Rooftop Gardens’.

Anyway – today I’m in a club at 3pm in the afternoon to see ‘The Faders’ – a new, all girl ‘guitar band’ – play some tracks off their forthcoming (and first) album.

Regular readers will remember me waxing about seeing them on ‘Pop World’ about a month ago and making comparisons to ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ (swooooon). Well – back then I signed up on their website – and today they put on a show for their first batch of fans.

But Nic – really? You’re really off to see some obviously put together, pop punk, teeny, ‘Busted’ type group?

You see, I have pretty varied music tastes. My Zen Xtra has pretty much everything from ‘Prefuse 73’ to ‘The Smiths’ to ‘Tujiko Noriko’ to ‘Simon and Garfunkel’ on it. This week alone I’ve jumped between ‘David Lee Roth’ – ‘Boom Boom Satellites’ – ‘Aphex Twin’ – ‘The Carpenters’ to name but a few. One thing strings all this together – I like a good tune, regardless of genre.

And that’s what ‘The Faders’ have – a great tune in ‘No Sleep Tonight’.

If it sounds like I’m excusing myself – that’s pretty much what I am doing because going into this I had no clue what to expect. Would I be the only person over 20 (and then some) there? Can they play or will they just mime? Damn it – were the trains even running?

These questions weren’t gonna answer themselves, so I decided to try and dress ‘rock’ and head for the station.


[Satan is good. Satan is out pal]

Okay - so I didn’t try very hard to dress rock. This is kinda what I wear every day. Just thought I’d throw on the ‘Fender’ T since it’s about the most rock thing I own, and then pout a lot (which is also something I do most days). Zero out of ten for effort there.

Onto the gig.

I’d forgotten how busy Oxford Street is on a Saturday – I switched my ‘commuter mode’ to 11 and walked through people to get to the 100 Club.

Question 1 was quickly answered. I’ll explain with a graphic.


[an acurate recreation of the 100 Club]

Basically – a mix. Phew. I was, of course, with the old enough to know better group. But it was somewhat validating to know I wasn’t alone.

The answer to question two shortly followed.

No – they didn’t mime. Yes – they CAN PLAY.

When they hit the stage - no messing, straight in there with the first single ‘No Sleep Tonight’. I hate it when a band holds the track you really want to hear till the encore – so thanks girls for rocking that one out first.


[click on the bad celly pic for an even worse celly video]

Musically really tight. Vocally – totally on the money. I huge smile hit my face. Legitimacy was theirs, and mine.

They blitzed through about 6 or 7 songs (I lose count). All sounded pretty good and with a few repeat plays I’m sure they’ll stick in my head. Stylistically the single is a great benchmark for what they do. And I did have a number of Josie and the Pussycats flash backs during the set. (swoooooon)

They broke from the electrics to do and acoustic version of one of the songs. Really nice it was too. I guess I just haven’t been to see a band that ‘plays instruments’ in ages. Only concerts I really ever seem to go to are electronic acts like ‘Mouse and Mars’ and ‘Boom Boom Satellites’. So for me it was kind of a novelty to hear people play unaccompanied. (hangs head in shame)


[do the same with this one]

I was especially impressed with Cherisse’s drumming. Very natural and incredibly tight. Really seemed like an ability to play beyond her years and physic. And she was really having fun.

The songs over, the girls left us wanting more and came back to jam out the single once more time.

Will they be huge? I hope so. Manufactured or not (and frankly I couldn’t care less) they proved that they weren’t just picked cos they looked pretty. They work together as a band. They seem to be having a lot of fun. And they were sweet with us early adopters.

The single is out Monday in the UK. I haven’t bought a single in years – so I’ll throw them my support and take a trip to HMV next week. After all – they did just put on a free concert.

And so finally to the raised eyebrows of my friends – I got to say you missed a treat. And I’m officially proud to be a fan.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 6:56 PM 4 comments