18th July 2013
***Playing catch up on the review front…memories are hazy at best…Pics AWOL***
One of the less widely known buzz bands of the past few years made the trip to London in the summer for a rather intimate outing in Camden in support of their latest album Celebration Rock. Mr Flowers and I were in the venue early and caught their support act The Wytches.
Their inoffensive indie rock was jaunty and light. Mr. Flowers was suitably impressed with their style and tunes, their underground lo-fi’ness an attractive attribute (henceforth shattered by their rise over the last 6 months). For me however it sounded like every other indie band who seem to all share an effect pedal/rig harking to surfy 60’s guitars packed with reverb which lacks in punchy tones (I think they all must use the same one on timeshare). Still young and with far to go they get a half thumbs up from doesitrock.net on this occasion.
Japandroids are not your typical indie rockers, they are a power duo who like to play rawkus noise rock, yet want people to sing along too. This was all in evidence this evening as they started their aural assault kicking head splitting drums and amping up layer of fuzz, over overdrive, over fuzz, over overdrive etc… Their thumping melodies were only matched in stature by their towering chorus’ from their latest LP.
Standout moments included the rampaging Evil’s Sway and the summery sprinkled chant vocals of The House That Heaven Built. The venue was packed and crowd in fine voice throughout generating a buzz of its own all night.
With just guitar and drum kit it’s hard to be truly diverse, where on occasion they suffered from repetitive riff syndrome on their lesser known album tracks. But with enough cannonballs in their arsenal there was plenty enough bombardment of fret board firepower to keep us happy, ranging from chugging punk strikes to chimed high notes providing the backdrop for the effect heavy vocal howls.
Tonight Japandroids showed themselves to be a star band, deceptively big and heavy despite their pop angles and love of a huge sing-a-long melody.
DOESITROCK.NET 