Six Fingered Man, The Analog Bombs at The Manville Arms, Bradford
With The Head having finally seeped into the local lexicon tonight's venue is renamed The Manville Arms and in the low corner of the open floor of hosts the first gig of Bradford's The Analog Bombs since the last gig ended in a brawl between the Bassist and Ben.
One has some sympathy for the bassist as Ben - standing around six foot eight - seems the sort who could cause a riot in an empty room bristling at the front of his three band mates like Sean Bean playing Kurt Cobain having been stretched on a medieval rack.
His vocal stylings are raw as are his lyrics and they are pushed along by the Indie meets Ska tone of the rest of the band largely driven by Dean's organ playing and the new bassist Rick who enjoyed an impressive debut.
They are very much a local band and The Analog Bombs sing about Bradford in a knarlled kind of way. "What would I give/to spend one more night with you" is a refrain from a song about 1990s indie disco Tumblers. God I Wish I Was You is likably barbed and spat out in rough Yorkshire and they very much seem like a band with more ambition than talent but that is no bad thing.
Certainly not compared to Six Fingered Man who seem to lack the ambition to go beyond the remit of being a pub band. They are technically competent but lack anything approaching a spark to render them that interesting beyond talking about The Princess Bride - great film - and how they may or may not have given the band a name.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Yes, again I felt this gig suffered from that danger of the warm-up outshining the main act. Analog Bombs certainly lived up to their explosive name as the simmering rivallry of the band’s “big personalities” between the singer Ben and the keyboardist Deano was evident in the odd snarl and dismission of the tin-hatted Deano’s website promotion for the band. I thought the previous stage scrap was between the lanky singer and the stocky keyboardist but i could be wrong…they certainly keep your attention on the stage and as long as their antics don’t overshadow the music, they really will be worth going to see at the numerous forthcoming local gigs they have listed on their MySpace. As for the newcomer bassist “Young Blood Rick”, his grin showed he seemed very at home within the crossfire of the band, his apparently fautless bass clearly heard over the tracks as he was proudly watched by his family.
Six Fingered Man, although heading the night, were a group unknown to me unlike Analog Bombs. So being in the top slot, I was expecting interesting things. Ah well. Technically they were good, very “put together”, certainly in relation to their warm up act. They were slick enough to suggest they’d been doing this for a while. However they appeared devoid of charm even despite the friendly demeanour of their lead singer as he interacted with a group of people already accustomed to SFM. I wanted to like their mix of shoegaze, indie type stuff but none of it was original enough to wrench my ears into paying attention to them fully. This also was reflected in the rest of the audience as conversations continued to flow over SFM’s performance in contrast to the captivated interest held by Analog Bombs – perhaps that was due to the hope of a repeat of previous fisticuffs? Anyhow, SFM were far too nice and rather bland to offer the promise of a hook – be it melody or fist so I was rather left wondering what their appeal was to warrant their top billing. I have no idea where they are from. I assume not the immediate Bradford area – the internet offers no immediate clues. Anyhow, I can’t say i’d make the effort to seek them out again, although if they were mid-billing on a decent line up night, i’d give them a second chance.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
heh, “…more ambition than talent”, that’s the story of my life!
We’ve only just got back together after a hiatus from the (ahem) altercation between Ben and Killers (the previous bassist) and are improving with every new song we do.
And you’ve got to admit, there’s never a dull moment….