15th September 2010
Another night in The HMV Kentish Town Forum began in fury! Somehow, as if the drinks weren’t expensive enough, they have increased in price yet again! This brings the price of a standard lager over £4. Seriously, this is getting to the point of stupidity! By doing this they have priced out most regular gig goers, who like myself are somehow not tempted by the lure of alcohol when you have to take out a loan in order to cover the nights bar bill.
Peter Kernel
Away from venue woes we took up centre stage to see the totally unknown support act, Peter Kernel. The reason for this obscurity became apparent pretty early on in the set, as this boy/girl fronted guitar, bass, drum, trio were getting into their stride. Apparent because of the looks of dismay and despair on the faces of the crowd. Yes this music was experimental but really it was no more than a guy coaxing weird sounds out of his instrument without a hint of melody or songwriting prowess. It was a case of “look what I can do” as he bustled about making much a fuss about nothing. Critically this may go down a treat, but even the must weird sonic experimentations usually have an underpinning catchy formula, one that was sadly misplaced here tonight. We could only hope for better from tonight’s headliners Wolf Parade!
Wolf Parade
Not being household names it was tough to identify if the roadies we in fact the band members themselves. Many conversations went along the lines of “oooh he looks familiar…” & “my my there are a lot of roadies tonight”. Proving that setting up your own equipment isn’t only for pub bands, the ‘Roadies’ returned and armed themselves with their respective musical weapon of choice, before giving the crowd both barrels of soaring indie greatness.
Wolf Parade had a joyful habit of being extremely harmonious and bursting with melody at every opportunity, while exhibiting their own brand of slightly odd pop. There was barely a pause between wonderful little piano/guitar riffs which packed each song. They manage to toe the line between pop and indie so gracefully as they struck fuzz filled ramshackle guitar chords, fizzed outer space electro synthesizers and a well balanced rhythm section.
They played the pick of their back catalogue with the highlights being the rockier riffin of Pobodys Nerfect, the indie anthem Ghost Pressure harmonies and the singalong pop vibes of Palm Road. This was a lesson in how to write and perform slices of indie tinged pop with bundles of energy and buckets of melody.
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