The Cooper Temple Clause @ LMUSU
By John HarveyThe Cooper Temple Clause tonight are playing the final British gig on the tour of their second album: "Kick-up The Fire and Let The Flames Break Loose", one of the more longer winded titles I've come across this year. It seems this band are perfectly treading the line between indie-cool and commercial success; plenty of the former and enough of the latter, but no so much that you'll be hearing you Mum whistling their tunes in the kitchen.
I mean how many bands have a haircut named after them? Go on walk into your hairdressers and ask for a Cooper Temple Clause. You'll know what you mean and you might get a knowing glance from the guy next in the queue but your hairdresser won't know what your talking about. This illustrates the point and I suspect perfectly underlines why half of the audience are here tonight packing out the venue to the rafters.
The band start off their set with the brooding "The Same Mistakes" and continue with a blistering set which works the crowd into a frenzy. The stuff from the new album is lapped up as eagerly as the older favourites including: "Lets Kill Music", "Who Needs Enemies", "Panzer Attack" and "Been Training Dogs".
Singer Ben looks particularly menacing during the eerie "Talking To A Brick Wall". While the new material including the excellent "New Toys" with its lines: "We came we played we drifted away/we came we played but it got away/oh no, what's happening to us? ... but don't tell the boys" hinting at a liaison that really shouldn't be happening that is too irresistible to stop. Other highlights include "A.I.M" and raucous closer "Promises, Promises".
The Cooper Temple Clause have a genre blending agenda of their very own which they morph into something that sounds like nothing you've quite heard before. Unlike the Kings of Leon, the Libertines or pretty much any guitar band your likely to hear at the moment the Coopers actually sound something like previous generations might have expected a band to sound like in 2003. I can picture it now: holidays on the moon, all of our daily food in a nutritious pill, cars that hover and all of this sound tracked by the Cooper Temple Clause.
The word eclectic is perhaps the most overused word in the dictionary these days but to this band it genuinely applies with a sound ranging from Indie-tronica, Angry Jazz through to Lounge Zeppelin. They also have more angst than any band I've heard for a considerable time which can be defined as either the sinister post-relationship break-up of "Did You Miss Me?" through to "you got one over me and we both know I'm going to get one back over you" which characterised much of their debut album. It's angst that's a lot more coherent than most Punk, EMO, Indie or Metal bands... but it's also diced with healthy amounts of vengeful paranoia.
With this being the closing gig of the tour we were treated to a particularly hearty performance complete with big-up respect given to Leeds and its annual festival. Their live sound is exhilarating, haughty and most surprisingly huge - but in a good way.
With two albums and the distinct feeling that the Coopers are carving out a sound all of their own I feel they could well deliver a classic album that changes the face of music. In the meantime get your haircut, jump on the bandwagon and strap yourself in tight.
