Saturday 12th February - Last People on Earth and The Morphines at Sweet n Sour, Silhouette Club (2/3) By Michelle Dee

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3)

Photograph Gallery   The Morphines Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Last People on Earth Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,    Gallery 4.

So on an uninspiring stage, The Morphines came to a halt. The audience gathered round and gave a reasonable cheer but needed every encouragement. In-between the bands the Sleaze Queens keep things moving but with no dancers on the floor it is hard to get excited. Perhaps they should communicate more with the crowd; make their considerable presence felt, make a real impact on the night.

The Last People on Earth, according to Alan Raw, played their best gig at Rhythm Room Benefit event 11TH of Jan. Being unable to see them at this historic event due to being on hosting detail myself, I was keen to see whether they lived up to the adulation. They are very different from all the other bands I have seen lately; to start with they are instrumentally unique having two keyboardists a drummer and a lead-singer/bassist. Rob is very much the front man and appears to revel in the limelight. Shouting at the crowd, he attempts to rouse them into something that might pass for frenzy. Appealing to a sense of fun and theatre, he encourages the reluctant crowd to relax and enjoy themselves. I think sometimes the superficiality of acting cool and looking good really interferes with connecting with the music. Somebody please tell me why do all the guys look like clones of each other, what happened to being independent, individual, indefinable.

At times The Last People's set seems to be lifted from the soundtrack of a trippy seventies B-movie with swirly fairground on acid pianos. Distorted vibrato sci-fi sounds begin the start of Spacesuit where as Summertime has a definite Peter Gun theme signature; aka Blues Brothers. With upbeat choruses hinged on to long drawn out verses they have a lazy afternoon out and about in town kind of feel.

To contrast with the poppy field flavour, plaintive chimes emanate from the Roland synthesizer then the childlike sound morphs into a heavy wave, rising and falling. This change augers a glimpse into the darker side of the usually upbeat, flowery band. When Rob sings, fist going in and around, disquieting thoughts flood the brain. The malevolent look accompanying the disturbing lyric leaves you feeling genuinely shaken. The highlight of the set tonight was most definitely Robots; and deserves all the praise it received from the revellers at January's benefit gig. I don't know, but it seems that bands' sets are getting shorter. No sooner have I placed the sound somewhere in my head then its over. I begin to dread the words this will be the last song ...

The crowd did not respond with gusto and I was rather disappointed The Last People weren't in costume; I had been led to believe this was standard practice for them. I think the crowd were more enthused by Rob's persona than the band's musical prowess. The Last People were on to a loser with this younger crowd, as they showcase sixties madness and seventies histrionics. They're on a different plane to the indy fans. They fall into the un-definable category but leave an impression long after the last engine roar of, It Can Happen.

A change at the DJ box opened up the rest of the night to a normal club night. As more alcohol was consumed, the dance-floor began to fill. Shortly after, the night was threatening to take off. Ted played Joy Division early on in his set and my negativity began to ebb away. The bar was staffed with friendly servers but you had to wait along time for a drink. That chill out room with it's extra bar would have been perfect at this point. The crowd peaked at about 1.30 then quickly fell away. The night bore some resemblance to the old Indy night on a Tuesday and Shiver, the 80s theme night. Current faves such as The Libertines, Zutons, Franz Ferdinand were played alongside 80s and 90s hits with the odd Dusty Springfield thrown in. I was left not blown away by the Sweet n Sour experience I had tasted at The Welly but disillusioned by a rather tired worn out echo of yesteryear.

continued....next page

Check the thisisUll.com Gallery Photographs courtsey and Copyright © Michelle Dee 2005

Photograph Gallery   The Morphines Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Last People on Earth Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,    Gallery 4.

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