Matchbook Romance, Camden Underworld
I didn’t know quite what to expect from this show; a more emotive band than I’d expect to see on Epitaph, a bona-fide ‘supergroup’, an opening band who are headlining the same venue on their next tour and the 1 in a million chance of meeting Dave Grohl. Of course the chief FOO wasn’t there but an army of teenage girls had their hopes up anyways. So after a quick stop off in the World’s End I headed down the steps into the Underworld to find myself swimming in a sea of mesh; if I had known it was a fashion parade I would have dressed for the occasion, nevertheless the ‘sore thumb’ look did me well.
THE HOLIDAY PLAN opened up proceedings and as they took to the stage I didn’t quite know what to expect from the long haired four-piece. What we got was a blast of indie-punk-emo-rock crossover sort of thing. An interesting mix on paper but although there was some psychotic guitar solo-ing and plenty of hair flying all over the place, it wasn’t long before I found myself losing interest in THP. The singer appeared to be singing in a different key and the guitars were just too incoherent and scrappy for my liking. Some would call it art, I just found it a sloppy mess. THP are undoubtedly good at what they do and they’re headlining the same venue on their next tour. However they just didn’t do much for me. (4)
I was quite pumped about seeing JACKSON (UNITED?), but again I didn’t know what sound to expect. They opened with a rocky power pop number which led me to think we were in for something special but as they set dragged on, and it did drag, I found myself losing interest quicker than Celebrity Big Brother. I think they played for somewhere around the 45 minute mark and it was just too long in the end. JACKSON UTD are more than comfortable performers and put on a good show but the music was just nothing more than mediocre bordering on bland at times, they would comfortably fit on a Dawson’s Creek soundtrack and as much as I tried not to, I did hear the odd FOO-esque riff creeping in here and there. JACKSON UTD are far from bad though, they are a solid, tight band and put on a good show. Unfortunately their set just did go on for far too long; if it wasn’t for this I wouldn’t have felt disappointed and they would have scored higher. (5)
MATCHBOOK ROMANCE were stunning! After I was let down by the two supports, it was going to take something special to make up for it and MR certainly did. An excellent cocktail of super emotive pop-punk spiked with some hardcore styling with a twist of metal powered riffage and drumming seemed to do wonders for a previously incredibly static crowd, as they were sent wild from the opening note of the first song until the band had left the stage to THE BEACH BOYS playing out over the P.A. I was certainly dubious about what to expect from MR as I’d only previously heard a handful of tracks but on tonight’s performance they have definitely made a new fan. MR had tons of energy, bags of presence and riffs with more meat than an Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse combined with frenzied bass slapping and drumming so powerful I could almost feel the bass drum kick right through me. With bands who fit into the contemporary fashionable genre at a said time it is quite common that an unnecessary arrogance can occur, MR however were incredibly down to earth and just seemed genuinely happy to be playing. Overall, a top notch performance. (9)
An interesting night in retrospect, I saw a real supergroup, and as with all supergroups, they looked better on paper, (see Audioslave, Zwan, Perfect Circle et all) but I saw them nonetheless. With music and fashion currently being hand in hand as strong as ever, it was nice to see MR had more than being at the right place at the right time on their side as they are quite sensational and saved what was becoming a disappointing night.
Mike Frankal
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