07.01.07
It’s not for the cock, it’s for the secrets and mysteries
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Mystery Jets/ Late of the Pier/Tinseltown @ The Social 29/6/07
Tonight at the Social quite an atmosphere has been building up. The Social is packed full of excited people here to see a Mystery Jets gig that has been named, through myspace pages and posters, a “secret”.
Firstly, Tinsletown play fairly good choppy rock music, though without their feisty female singer, the band would be bland and uninspiring. Vaguely resembling an indie Lady Sovereign, she carries the band with her unique delivery and style.
By the time Late of the Pier make their way onstage, wearing coloured trousers and EROL t-shirts, the crowd has beefed up in size considerably. The band are shambolic, with the gig seemingly about to brake down into a messy pile of synths and bed slats at any point, yet they hold it together flawlessly.
Late of the Pier basically take some of the most questionable musical ingredients (hair metal Vs. Numan synths anyone?) and create The Best Sound Ever. At previous gigs they have fed off the energy of the crowd but tonight they are still wonderfully weird and electrifying jerky despite much of the audience taking the chin stroking, rather than limb flailing, approach to appreciation.Â
Mystery Jets then make their way onstage to a packed out room which erupt with applause. The three fronted melodic assault gives the band a certain tightness and strength with essentially three lead singers.
At some points tonight, Mystery Jets are on fantastic form with the likes of “The Boy Who Ran Away” and “Purple Prose” igniting the crowd with their choppy yet melodic sound. However, while the high points feel like an event of comrade in arms kind of joy, the weaker moments come across as repetitive and slow. The band aren’t helped by technical difficulties that slow down the tempo and dull the atmosphere slightly.
“One of the main reasons for tonight is to play some new songs” explains guitarist William. Some of these said new songs are exciting and fresh- adding a good dimension of keyboard and synth to the mix. Other of these new songs are hard to get to know straight away and tend to slow things down a little.
The gig ends with a fantastically explosive climax. “Zoo Time” builds up with a primal chant from both band and crowd and spirals out of control into an almost metallic riff. Pounding drums, crashing cymbals and end-of-the-world guitars are accentuated by flashing lights which result in the crowd going wild. The song ends with the bassist crowd surfing triumphantly while still playing the song and then the guitarist surfing on top of him. It’s a messy yet spectacular end but unfortunately it may have come a little late as the gig has only began to hit full pace towards the end.  Despite this, overall this (not very) secret gig has been fun and exciting with new songs being aired and a good time had by all.
www.myspace.com/ilovetinseltown
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