I'm not sure if it's just me, but I think there's a perverse pleasure to be had when you're enjoying a support act at a gig and the stranger next to you goes 'They're rubbish, this lot'. Immediately your inner superiority complex is building up a caricature of them as luddite swamp-dwellers who only know one band, while you are, of course, the oracle of indie knowledge and open-mindedness. (It's definitely just me, isn't it?)
This kind of happened last night watching Rolo Tomassi supporting Blood Red Shoes. The misguided souls next to me were definitely not enjoying them, and I'm almost certain it was largely because of the fearsome roarings of singer Eva, who, on stage, sounds more like a hairy, leather-clad biker than a tiny, softly-spoken girl from Sheffield.
Me, I loved them though. I've had the album a few weeks now, (one of my classic 'buy before you try' punts which almost always work out for the best), and it's grown on me after some initial trepidation.
If you can get past the voice (which, actually, I quite like now), there's some fantastic, crazy stuff going on underneath. It kind of seemed like they'd written about 50 30-second snippets of songs and played them back-to-back in a completely random order. Really fast, energetic, mad synthy bits and absolutely deafening guitars. They were definitely not one of the dreaded 'blend into the wallpaper' support bands who are inflicted on you far too often.
As for Blood Red Shoes, they were as good as they always are. The last time I saw them was in Academy 2 a few weeks before the album came out. This marked the start of an obsession that developed pretty rapidly and meant I was looking forward to last night's gig at the Academy 2 more than usual.
The thing that's always struck me about Blood Red Shoes is how fucking noisy they are for a two-piece. Last night was no exception. Steven's drumming in particular is just brilliant. I don't think I'd noticed until last night just how good he actually is.
The band still have the same vigour and aggression that was there when I first saw them supporting Metric at Newcastle Uni about 18 months ago. They blasted through most of the album, and in spite of the fact they've been playing most of these songs for three years or more now, they don't really sound like they're tired of them. Having said that, the three new songs were a welcome addition, and don't suggest that they've decided to reinvent the wheel any time soon (No point changing a winning formula for the sake of it).
The highlight of the set for me was Say Something, Say Anything. I don't really know how Steven can sing a song about losing his Dad at such a young age every night, and still keep it together. It generates a few goosebumps, that one.
Weirdly, the Academy seemed to get emptier as the night went on. Perhaps it was something to do with that horrible smell of sweaty peardrops that filled the air (FAO Academy Management: For God's sake, clean your air-con, or carpets or whatever the fuck makes that stench. Even in these testing economic times, I'm sure you can stretch to that). In spite of the dwindling crowd, the turn-out was pretty good considering Monday's staunch competition for people's ever-diminishing entertainment buck which came in the form of Elbow, Newcastle v Man City and, ahem, Lee Evans.
There have been reports that Laura and Steven have been known to have the odd falling-out, but their onstage chemistry was great last night (and it always has been whenever I've seen them play). They're relaxed with each other, and not dwarved by the extra space that would normally be occupied by the rest of a band. Their banter was lively and included Steven spectacularly losing a £100 bet that he could talk in some ridiculous shrill Cockney bootblack accent all night. He barely lasted three songs, much to Laura's obvious delight.
I'm guessing this tour pretty much marks the end of them promoting the album, and I expect them to hole up to record the follow-up pretty soon, but I hope it doesn't take them as long as it did to get the first one out. If it does, here's hoping they break up the recording sessions with regular gigging.
I've uploaded a sample of Rolo Tomassi and two of my favourite songs from the Blood Red Shoes album.
Rolo Tomassi - Nine
Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring by the Sea
Blood Red Shoes - Say Something, Say Anything
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