O Children, The Chapman Family, and The Tunics @Fruit

Whoops. Out of touch. First gig I've been to at Fruit.

Friday night and a triple bill of out-of-town bands unfortunately the first band up, The Tunics, sound pretty much like your average Hull band (despite hailing from London): bland, inoffensive with a twist of excessive self worth. Next...

I should have known from reading Shakespeare that I shouldn`t judge on names alone, but I`m still shocked when The Chapman Family turn out to be angry young men, raging against the world and thank god as my expectations of 'The Jackson Five' meets 'Mumford and Sons' were laying heavy on my brain – so this dark melodic stomp is something of a pleasant surprise. Well, at least until the final song where the singer decides to throw a faux- strop, kick a can off-stage and tie the mic cord around his neck, before executing a couple of 'Louie Spence' style arm thrusts. Fortunately, for him and us he spared us the forward roll and cartwheels. Call me cynical but it is all very amateur dramatic, darling.

Now we do have a band, polished and intense. O Children, named after a 'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' song eclipse all else that has happened tonight. The previous zombie like crowd shuffle forward into a dance of the dead as singer Tobi O'Kandi leads them astray. A quick glance around the Internet finds several sceptics and nay sayers, many recalling that O Children are just re-enacting some of the haunting bands of the late-70s and early-80s (see 'Bauhaus'), more still will wonder what continues to attract the kids to such darkness, what with rising incomes and a perceived lack of struggle. But as the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ persists and grows then pure teenager idealism finds itself increasingly isolated, at odds with a world of budget cuts and halved expectations: a world that O Children could well find themselves soundtracking during the next couple of years. 

 

Comments

[Vibram Fivefingers for Sale]

To be or not to be it is a question.

[Lalaine]

I don't even know what to say, this made things so much easeir!