Planes Mistaken For Stars, Sheffield Corporation
After Monday nights events, my body was reaping it’s revenge on me in the shape of a stinking cold and a burgeoning illness. And so it was with a snotty nose, bags under my eyes and a feeling of dread somewhere deep inside my stomach that I set off for the Corporation to see the mighty Planes Mistaken For stars. Maybe I should have stayed in bed, I don’t know, I’m not one to make these sensible decisions, as you may well have gathered.
After saying hello to numerous people, and seeing far too many faces that I recognised but didn’t know why (How fucking annoying is that? I never wanna ask either unless it seems like a cheesy chat up line. Dammit) and generally feeling like my face was melting, I slumped at the back of the Corp to feel sorry for myself while EMBERS BURNT took the stage. Now, the last time I saw this Chesterfield based band, they were the wrong side of fucking awful. Luckily, things have picked up for them, but not much. If a TV show was ever conceived with the title ‘When good musicians form shite bands’ then Embers Burnt could consider themselves dead certs to be featured. Sounding like a slightly heavier Finch, with songs that go on for far too long but with some absolutely killer guitar solo’s (that, yet again, are overplayed and as such, lose all impact by the fifth minute) they seem a strange choice to support PMFS, but who am I to judge? Stage presence is minimal, but this is kind of balanced out by the tightness of the riffs being played. Unfortunately, the solo’s, double bass drumming and intricate guitar interplay are ruined by the singer’s insistence in belting out substandard Death Metal growls and horribly clichéd and poorly executed Funeral For A Friend style screams. Why do vocalists insist on doing this when their actual singing voice is highly impressive to begin with? Take away the fantastic guitar work and the tight musicianship and you’re left with little to recommend. (5)
NAVAHOE CODE, formed from the ashes of Scuttle but without the pop frailties, explode onto the stage with an almighty crash and some seriously rocking tunes. Imagine the aforementioned Scuttle but with a harder, faster, drunker edge, and you’re reasonably close. While the vocals occasionally grated and at times, lost any attempt at tunefulness the music was suitably punchy and kept the majority of the crowd on their toes for the entire set. Im at a bit of a loss to actually describe the sound that NC belted out, but somewhere between Equal Vision-style hardcore and PMFS without the full-on metal would be a reasonable shot in the dark. Whatever they sounded like, their energetic performance sure as hell brought the rock that was missing from Embers Burnt’s set and set the crowd up nicely for the headliners. (7)
Well, PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS. What can you say? Four metallers (one of whom resembling Andrew Wk and one of them seemingly straight from the ‘Phones 4U … It’s Phones 4U’ advert) with a blatantly emo name rocking out to abstract post hardcore heavy metal rock noise … or something. PMFS deserve a genre of their own for the music they create, and for that we should salute them. Original, devoted and with more energy than the annual Duracell Bunny convention, they proceeded to baffle the gathered throngs with a set made up mainly of new songs that sounded heavier than anything they’ve done before. Ultimately though, they were a little disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, they rocked like a quartet of ADD afflicted children on their first foray into a theme park, but I don’t know, there was just something missing. It was probably a combination of the vocalist losing his voice, the frankly shit sound in the Corporation and the abundance of new, unfamiliar material. Still, the likes of ‘End Me In Richmond’ and ‘Division’ went down an absolute treat and despite the collective dismay at the lack of a ‘Copper and Stars’ encore, PMFS still ‘rocked the party’ as it were, if in a mildly disappointing fashion. (7.5)
I for one can’t wait to see the looks on the Atari’s fans faces when PMFS support the pop punkers this week. Anyone with any comical photos of said event, please send them this way.
Ross
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