Cellar Door @ The Vine
By Sam Robson
I arrived at The Vine late to see there was a change to the original line-up for the night. Wakefield three-piece Soberskin had conceded their slot third on the bill to open the night.
Fresh from a Futuresound competition appearance on the 8th, Soberskin knock out commercially angled indie electronica. Well, I say fresh, but perhaps not... two of the three had just completed a 45 mile walk for charity and the lead singer admitted that he had to "piss in the shower" to make the gig on time. Tasty. The rushed build up to the gig was apparent in the sound. Soberskin use backing tracks to buff up their live dynamics and on this occasion it seemed the backing track was a little quiet in the mix, which filtered down the delivery somewhat. There is some very accomplished musicianship and the songs are well crafted and intelligent. The band are obviously perfectionists as they adjust the sound levels mid song and constantly apologise for "playing shit". To be honest I didn't notice and their set ends with me walking away with a CD wishing I'd seen the first half.
Next on The Vine's Saturday night offering are Friday's Ghost. This band instantly grabs my attention with whirling keyboards and a rousing lead vocal that reminds me in parts of Interpol and I start to get really excited that I might be intrigued for half an hour. Sadly after this strong start the Ghost slip into plodding, middle of the road rock reincarnations that are disappointingly far from haunting, with drumming that could actually be Friday's Ghost it is so askew. Things do pick up on the final song which has more of a prog rock feel to it, but Fridays Ghost need serious work on their time-keeping and parts of the vocals. On a personal note I'd like to see more songs like their first.
The lead singer from 4 Letter Holiday greets his public with the announcement that he is "absolutely pissed". He follows later on in the set with gems like "clap you bastards", "we are going to slow it down... get your fucking lighters out" and "Fucking clap!" Sounds pretty rude but it was actually my favourite aspect of their performance and helped greatly in presenting their Black Crows-meets-John Spencer Blues Explosion-meets-pub-rock tunes. I'm not going to complain about this being slightly pub rock, we are after all in a pub and I found their tight and proficient handling of their instruments thoroughly enjoyable. I fucking clapped... the bastards.
On comes the headline in the form of Cellar Door. They break into what echoes a slightly poncey Rage Against The Machine. A rocky number with twangy vocals, but a great introduction of chants mid-song. I love a chant. However things become plainer as the set progresses. The singers are obviously taking this seriously but lack passion and presence. The bland delivery is interspersed with some nice lifts in tempo but my attention starts to drift and I'm drawn to watching an inebriated member of the audience trying to light a coin as if it was a cigarette. The brightest moment of Cellar Door's set is a song called "Death to Democracy" which prompts some hardcore moshing at the front of the audience. This is the highlight of the set with up-tempo rhythm and interesting ideas with melody. The audience are enjoying this band so maybe I am alone in wanting them to ditch the drab mid-nineties Britpop pretender motions that wash over the better songs in their set like a solution of Dodgy, Echobelly and JJ72 mixed with Menswear and a sprinkling of other bands from that era so forgettable I can't even recall their name. Cellar Door are obviously not my cup of tea!
