Sound Lounge 21, Birmingham Town hall, Minimum, Friday Club, Taste, New Killer Shoes. Review

After a long tiring day of making frappucino's going to the Town hall's Best of B-Town free gig seemed like it would be a little bit too exhausting a way to end my day. Happily it was probably the most laid back gig I've ever been too. The atmosphere was relaxed, with chairs and sofa's set up. normally gigs are a bit intimidating if your by yourself, but this just felt like a huge common room, where music lovers could come and go as they pleased.

weareminimum.co.uk

I got there in time to miss a bit of Minimum's set. Minimum played a pretty good set of their post hardcore/electronica, mixed in with samples to give the show a Public Service Broadcasting style feel. This stuff isn't really my thing anymore but they definitely put on a good show, full of the energy and passion you'd expect from a band like this. Songs such as 'Smash Routine' show that Minimum are a band worth keeping tabs on.




Friday Club were on next, I've been keeping a watch on these guys for ages now and it was great finally getting a chance to see them. The thing is though that normally most bands are never as good on record as they are live, there is always a bit of rawness and vibrancy that gets lost in translation. With Friday Club, bizarrely enough it's the other way round. The bands soundcloud demo's had me expecting a punk band  yet the live performance seemed to remind me of Razorlight. This may sound like the ultimate insult but I kept thinking that the frontman looked a bit like Johnny Borrell, and the band sounded a bit like Razorlight too. This is no bad thing, Razorlight were once an awesome rock 'n roll band (the hugely underrated debut album is still proof of that). There is an amazing band in Friday Club waiting to come out which is obvious in the more punk rock style songs like 'All I Wanna do is Fuck'. If Friday Club want to be the leading band in the Birmingham scene (as they've claimed) then they've got a shot as long as they write more songs like that and basically be as punk rock as possible.

www.facebook.com/TASTEMUSICBIRMINGHAM

Up Next was Taste, who like Minimum I'd never heard of before. Taste were the only real B-Town band on the night (despite being from Redditch). Their singer's laid back attitude perfectly matched the vibe of the room. Taste play funky foalsy* indie rock full of wiry guitar melodies and jazzy rhythms. They're clearly good songwriters as songs such as 'Tame Me' are instantly catchy and lovable. They were so good that they were the only band of the night to have someone at the back shout for more.



I first heard of Redditch's New Killer Shoes a while back when i picked up a free EP of theirs in the Music and Video Exchange. That described them as "An aggressive Gritpop*** band... a Fusion of 70's punk, 90's grunge.. pop and indie shaken together with a dash of ska". The band have had an image change since then and the music makes far more sense live. Put simply New Killer Shoes are a Rock band, a modern rock band with riff's guitar solo's and plenty of tunes. Song's like 'Lets go Disco' work better live  but like on record it's still the slower songs such as 'Smooth' that show the bands real talent.
I'm not going to pretend that New Killer Shoes are in anyway cool or trendy, they are a bit cheesy really. But If you want unpretentious no nonsense rock n roll then NKS are your band, they will never get shot to fame via NME, but it doesn't matter because these guys do it the old fashioned way, touring the country and picking up dedicated fans along the way. One family had traveled all the way down from Leicester to see them and being nice guys, NKS thanked them and greeted them afterwards.
Anyway they put on a storming show playing to an audience of about 30 people as if it was Wembley, when it comes to a good rock n roll show New Killer shoes are one of the best bands you'll find right now.

The album 'I Aint Even Lyin' is out now.
www.facebook.com/newkillershoes



*From now on this should be a proper journalistic term
** Viva Brother invented that term, unlike VB the term actually describes this band