Photo:
Having successfully put on as then up and coming bands such as The Killers and Arctic Monkeys, Club Fandango has got undisputed form. Unfortunately, five minutes before tonight’s opening act are due on, there’s still more than enough room for the sparse turnout to simultaneously skip the proverbial light and turn cartwheels across the floor. Thankfully in the blink of an eye, the crowd swells larger than Leslie Ash’s lips as The Grave Architects aptly open with ‘Time Management’. Adopting a relaxed and proficient off kilter accuracy throughout the multifaceted pace and style of ‘Highway Be True’, ‘Sleep Water & Vitamin C’ and ‘Puppet’, the happy to banter four-piece are on to something, mistakes included. And then something incredible happens; they nail it with the tempo bending, pastiche embracing ‘Bike Song’ which mixes fuck off guitars with audacious interactive rap and various snatched cover choruses including Bob Marley’s ‘Get Up Stand Up’ and Corinne Bailey Rae’s 'Put Your Records On'. A collective audience jaw drop later and their thirty minutes are up but the applause speaks volumes.
Part Canadian, part Italian A Classic Education are up next and with just drums and viola on stage beating out a funereal procession, the remaining four members chant their way, Hare Krishna style, through the crowd, around and onto the stage. Immediate thoughts are best left at that because it belies the epic multilayered vastness of ‘Lovers Barricade’ and ‘Best Regards’. Star quality is an obvious understatement and as though self-administering an overdose of musical narcotics, the sextet’s immense sound and enjoyment is completely mirrored by the crowd. As if to prove a point, ‘War Times’ and ‘Victories At Night’ underlines that this is one of those nights not to be missed. Not only that but the huge wall of densely liberating ecstasy displayed in ‘Badlands & Owls’ and the piercing strings and solemn downturn of ‘Stay Son’ establish a band destined for bigger and better stages. Something made all the more incredible for a group who have only been together for less than a year.
By this point the heat is ridiculously unbearable, but a packed Borderline is more than happy to sweat it out in anticipation of tonight’s headline act The Wave Pictures. As they confidently take their positions, the crowd’s appreciation is colossal as the casual assurance of ‘Long Island’ and ‘Just Like A Drummer’ reward the shared expectation. David Tattersall looks vacant yet wholly focused as bassist Franic Rozycki grins his way through the softly weathered ‘Kittens’, “A minor key blues for young lovers” and the conviction and instant recognition of ‘Leave The Scene Behind’, which produces the biggest cheers so far.
Good friends and fellow musicians Toby Goodshank and Isabelle Martin join the trio to provide backing vocals for ‘Tiny Craters In The Sand’ and the high energy release of ‘Cassius Clay’ (co-written by Goodshank) in which Tattersall looses his whammy bar in a frenzy of, for lack of a technical term, whammy barring. It’s a long sweaty forty-five minutes of sheer quality but quite clearly not long enough and as the trio leave the stage (cue more ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’ references) the crowd called out for more. Accommodating the request, the band return for a fuller and faster live version of ‘I Love You Like A Madman’ and a mass front row dance off ensues. Unfortunately this time it really is over and as the ten thirty curfew bangs its unforgiving hands against the pungent wall of near visible body odour, the lights come up on a blinder of a night. The only thing missing is sixteen vestal virgins but that’s probably asking a bit too much.
_11_600.jpg)
 Faith No More 7.jpg)
