Rhetorical Retro The Landau's The Ringside, Beverley Road, Hull 26th May 04 By Daniel Laney

Photograph Gallery   The Landau's Gallery

I have never been a person that judges style over substance but tonight as soon as I saw the Rod Stewart look yet again in full swing and the clothes from Dads wardrobe I cringed. Another venue I was a virgin of until last night was Beverley Road's newest rock venue, The Ringside.

This strange venue with its easy going décor and welcoming atmosphere was more than a pleasant way to begin the evening and in a world where the room goes quiet as soon as you enter, it's nice to feel this salutation amongst strangers.

However, I can not lie and say that the clubs welcoming ambiance had pulled the crowds in by the hundreds this evening, which is a shame because The Ringside could be the next Moriarty's. Tonight's small pleasant crowd consists of four middle aged metallers, all gently pissed not disturbing anyone except with their smiles.

An old man wearing denim and leather helps to keep the bar afloat, joining him are a couple of members from The Supatones and Nigel Holmes, apart from the band and three or four die hard fans this is tonight's gathering. It may have been the lack of people or it may have been the late start, but tonight The Landau's were just bland. I must declare that I have never seen this four piece play and I can imagine that in different scenarios they would have pulled the crowds in and played an absolute belter. But tonight they just seemed to be lacking that certain something.

If you're not familiar with The Landau's, they sound like lots of the 'The' bands that were prowling through our indie and mainstream charts about this time last year. For instance The D4, The Datsuns, The Strokes, The White stripes, The Music and I'm sure there are loads more to mention but right now The names of such acts escapes me. Basically their sound is garage rock 'n' roll with hints of The Ramones and new wave punk. They weren't bad at doing it either, they have great two part harmonies, fast vocals and some crazy solo work and funky bass lines that would argue to almost change the genre the band play in.

One thing that did bother me a bit was the drumming, yet again this could have boiled down to the lack of people here tonight. Over the top straight up whacking the drums, if this member of the group wanted to be noticed he certainly had my eyes fixed upon him. His style was something that I wouldn't imagine finding in this kind of musical venture either, it was just too much and by watching the other members keep turning round to almost question his performance I can imagine they too had similar feelings to myself and other members at the bar.

The singing was excellent and so were the guitarists and bassist's performance, but you could tell by the look on the lead vocalist face they really didn't want to be there.

Without wanting to be to cliché isn't that what rock 'n' roll is supposed to be all about? One day you play to a huge crowd and everyone can sing-a-long word for word and then the next evening you play to a handful of people. It is this handful that turns small crowds into a stadium sized appreciation. Even if there is a small crowd, still give it your all if anything you're getting a name and practice at the same time. But I hate to end on a negative point, try and watch The Landau's when they next return to Hull, I'm sure it will be the enthusiasm of a larger crowd that will let their true colours shine through.

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