scott, in brief

Alphabeat were totally on form yesterday.

What a gig!
They played a short (ish) set, about 1hour 15mins. but managed to get through the whole of "This is Alphabeat" album and also a deliciously awesome cover version of Sugababes, "Push the button".

anyway the review...

The Alphabeat gig has been posponed since June. We turned up with some wonder about the gig. Upon turning up to the door we were age checked. I am 31 and the bouncer did ask me if I was over 18. This was unexpected but delightful. I was worried that this would be an omen for the age of the concert goers inside but I need not have worried. Inside the venue was filled with a variety of ages and was about half to three quarters full.

As I have previously noted Oran Mor suffers from two main issues, an 11pm strict curfew, and conversation noise. The crowd can be made of people wanting to chat through a concert to their friends rather than listening to music. using this knowledge positioning within the venue is key to enjoyment of the gig. We got a good position, next to a piller about 5m. from the stage and waited.

The Support band
Alto Elite were okay.
They had a good pop/rock vibe but ultimately were lacking something to take it beyond a decend to a memorable. Lacking real hooks, strong melody. The problem was I cannot remeber anything about their set with two notable exceptions.
The drummer was a lefty playing a right handed drum set up and was clearly the best inividual player with the band.
The keyboard player felt a bit like an add on. At one point he was playing possibly the worst keyboard solo every. He felt like an add on to the band, so lose the keyboard player (or get him lessons). In short, write some memorable and catchy pop songs and make sure everyone can see the drummer then you guys have a reciepe to go places.

The crowd swelled to be about three quaters full. The toilets were still remarkably clean. lots of boys with modern straightened hair!

Alphabeat
The band came out and blasted us into a pop universe. No really it is quite unreal, Anders SG (vocals), Stine (vocals), are the main focus of the gig, by virtue of being up front really. The energy from these two is quite remarkable. Anders is all over the stage dancing, (kinda reminicent of Ian Curtis and Tim Booth mixed with Bez). Meanwhile Stine has this kinda fifties dress sense and dance thing going on, kinda cute, cool and sorted.

As for the band, as a whole they groove in an excellent pop way - Anders B (guitar), Rasmus (keyboard), Anders R (bass), and Troels (drums), are a remarkably solid unit with a groove. Alphabeat didn't stray to far from the album versions, but they added a few twists and turns to move from a pop show to a rock show. Firstsong they played has become my favourite song - Fantastic 6, check it out. The album version builds but live it is totally transformed to a song of euphoric proportions.

notable things from the gig include
+ That Anders B (guitars) plays a three quarter length guitar. wow haven't seen any band use one of them for a while as a primary instrument. (perhaps that is the secret of alphabeats pop sound?)
+ This was probably the loudest gig i have been at, in oran mor. it was blasting.
+ Rasmus on keyboards hair is worth a mention as well (Flock of seagulls anybody).
+ Free badges on the way in. Nice one!
+ Lots of camera but nothing on flickr yet?

I would like to know why no encore? I know they had played the entire album and one cover version but it did seem quite weird. I noted the tour van had left the venue sharpish so i wonder if they had to catch the last plane for the airport and had to leave, but it did seem weird exspecially as the lights and music came up before the band had fully left the stage?

Anyway the gig was great. It makes you smile, sing, dance and generally have a swell time. just a quality evening of music, again! (This is becoming a habit)

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