The Ataris, Last Days of April @ Mean Fiddler, London
4th May 2007
After a very last minute decision, me and a workmate Pete, headed out of the city and down to the west end to catch the Atari’s at the intimate Mean Fiddler. I was dubious about tonight’s show. Firstly their latest album was a big miss for me, and probably for any other fan who enjoyed earlier albums Their new indie edge was very blunt and well worth avoiding. Secondly was the support act…
Last Days Of April, are another aboard the train of mellow indie bands with no real cut or thrust for anything catchy or fun. Their songs tended to plod along and with a weak vocalist thrown into the mix, this didn’t make for the best concoction. So with these guys and their deliberate indie’ness, I was dreading The Atari’s ruining my opinion of the happy go lucky Californian punk they have trademarked for years.
When The Atari’s first paused for breath, it was after they had rattled through a supposed new track. This was encouraging as it was good and I couldn’t tell the difference between new and old. Even better was to come as lead singer Kris Roe garbled “Were gonna play some new stuff, and lots of old stuff” much to the crowd obvious delight. True to their word they did just that. There were plenty of recognizable tracks from albums gone by as well as fresh sounding indie/punk. Much to my delight they played a couple of tracks from my favorite Atari’s album So Long Astoria. This featured “In This Diary”, a fiery spark pop-punk track dedicated to friends and good times as well as the set closer album titled ‘So long Astoria”. For veterans of 6 albums they still love to rock to the live crowds, feeding off the energy of the mosh pit.
After tonight I can unequivocally say that, The Atari’s are still a high octane punk-pop beast of epic proportions.
