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Gigwise likes bands that have X in their name. It easily leads to a deluge of bad puns regarding X-appeal, X-factor and several other tabloid newspaper plays on words and therefore, is a good thing Luckily, The XCERTS possess far more than a handy name. They’re loud, a little bit mad, loud, poppy, loud and brilliant. Oh, and loud. OK, there’s nothing especially groundbreaking about what they do but cherry picking the best bits of Biffy Clyro, At the Drive In and Idlewild isn’t a bad recipe for success to begin with and when you add in the sheer exuberance of the band it’s a fairly winning formula. While new single ‘Just Go Home’ is perhaps one of the band’s more melodic efforts, their material is able to be comfortably loud without ever descending into a din, managing to retain a raw tunefulness. Plus, bassist Jordan’s glasses give him a vaguely Clark Kent look. To conclude, singer/guitarist Murray leaps into the crowd with a megaphone, wildly runs amok and then returns to the stage to beat on a drum. Great stuff and an eye catching, ear splitting display that backs up the growing ball of hype the XCERTS have.
If the XCERTS have a ball of hype, Make Model have a huge snowball rumbling down a snowy Swiss mountain behind them. The six-piece may have been assembled from various Glasgow groups but they’ve quickly succeeded in carving out their own niche for themselves, with a string of support slots and festival appearances to boot.
The main reason for this is fairly straightforward. They’ve got some utterly fantastic songs in their repertoire and when they hit top gear superb power pop is produced that’s warm enough to heat up the freezing air of cold winter nights. In an igloo. At the North Pole. Opening track ‘The L.S.B’ is a perfect example, combining slick harmonies with a nagging, incessant tune. It’s also accompanied by a rather dodgy 70’s disco style light show, but Gigwise will let that pass as the song is so strong.
There’s several other gems like that. The lush, male/female 3 part harmonies stand out but so do stomping indie tracks like forthcoming single ‘The Was’, which have stadium sized choruses bursting to get out or more delicate, rootsy folk numbers like ‘Just Another Folk Song’, which shows that the sextet have a grasp on more low key, yet equally beguiling songs.
And yet, while Make Model have a string of brilliant songs, on this night it doesn’t quite click. The main reason for this is the dreadful sound, which has everything sliding into one, drowning quagmire. With that happening, too often songs struggle to stand out and it’s a frustrating experience, especially leaving both the bass and drums submerged. When the above mentioned songs do burst out it’s a relief, yet the continual sound problems leave a chunk of the set flat and the overall experience a tad disappointing.
Hopefully, the problems were just a blip, because Make Model are clearly an impressive band. It was just a shame Gigwise couldn’t hear more of them.
