sammyUSA @ Joseph's Well
By Dave Procter
Shed Seven - The Charlatans - Flowered Up - The Verve - aah, halcyon days indeed. These bands are almost certainly amongst the record collection of openers Silvertin and their facsimiles of the aforementioned bands in their songs are pretty spot on, if a little watered down. As Henri les Flames! has screamed on several occasions "There's a time and a place for everyone, baby our time has gone" - sadly for Silvertin, this time was the early 90s and the place Manchester.
Your author has seen SammyUSA a few times, but cannot remember anything about the previous gigs. There may be several reasons for this - drink, ignorance, that sort of thing, but during this evening's set it all becomes clear - there's nothing that really sticks out and sticks in the memory. The projections of old arcade games are ace - the songs are pleasant enough and well delivered, but there's nothing for me that says "I am amazing, burn everything else you own NOW!". The style of songs is very up-to-date - mixing Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and The Strokes together to give some angular, keyboard enhanced shapes, but the band seem, well bored. Has signing to a major label dulled their desire? How do I know? All I can report on is an apparent half-arsed performance, which in front of a starved of Sammy live performances crowd is not a good idea I would suggest. Was this an over-rehearsed band, who knows...
