ˇForward, Russia! @ Mine
By Luke Ramsden
When jumping, dancing and causing general musical mischief in the darkened venues of Leeds city centre, the rare spotted Steve Lamacq is a rare beast to sight indeed. But blimey, that guy can rock when he wants to. Believe me when I say the guy was going absolutely BANANAS down the front. And what does it take to lure he of late night Radio 1 from his lair? Only the high pitched but instantly recognisable call of the oft-spotted but highly untamed ˇForward, Russia! frontman Tom whirling about in his natural habitat of microphone cords and ear piercing screeching invisible walls of sound of course. To be fair, the whole room goes absolutely 'bananas' for ˇForward, Russia! And why not? After all, it's their party and they can rock if they want to. Oh no you didn't.
Generally 'single launch party' and 'gig' are two words that can be interchangeable. A great venue, two great support bands and an underlying and fully justified feeling in the room that tonight is a celebration of all ˇForward, Russia! have so far accomplished and indeed all they will surely accomplish in the future, makes this night something more. Almost even a kind of 'letting go' of a band that the city has nurtured and seen blossom into a snarling shrieking beast of a potential national establishment. Awww don't they grow up fast?
To say the two K's inhabit Newcastle & Derby respectively, they don't half appear in Leeds more than their fair share of times. We could almost lay claim to adoption and hailing them as joint 2nd best K bands in Leeds (care to guess the first?). And where one of them appear the other is sure to follow and thankfully tonight is no exception. Between them Kubichek! & Komakino define the current climate in our fair city. Mixing and matching styles and paces to often glorious effect, firstly Kub and then the Kom, embark on the reasonably easy task of warming up an already hyped capacity crowd. Mentioning the two bands in the same breath may be doing them both a slight mis-service but the comparisons are all but inevitable. However Kubichek! tend to tread more of a hardcore line and also with an ear for the more epic, swirling, highly developed loud numbers and host the better-than-Editors glory of 'Nightjoy', while Komakino incorporate keyboards and opt for the more dancey route with hand claps a plenty. The middle ground of the two stalwarts lies almost identical in the kind of mainstream indie pedalled by the you know who's of the UK scene of this current time. Both highly talented, respectable and could up it a level literally at any moment.
It's ˇForward, Russia!'s night though. Tonight is theirs. Surrounded by friends, fans and probably the odd pessimist (not to mention radio 1 DJ's), they precede to slash and writhe and rock through the set of their lives. This is more than just another band and more than just another gig, this is the end of something unique and small and the birth of something special and colossal. And everyone in attendance can lay claim to being apart of it.
A ˇForward, Russia! set is never anything short of exceptional but tonight everything is raised that extra little bit. A louder drumbeat, a more bowel threatening bass pluck, a more earth shattering Whiskas inspired guitar chord and of course a more ear piercing, pint glass smashing, haemorrhage inducing vocal notation from the gangly one man contortionist/professional mic wire escapist Tom. Relaying specific songs is futile. Every song now makes sense, they no longer sound like the insane ramblings of a man who one day decided to pen his own language. 'Thirteen', 'Six', the reason we're all here 'Twelve' and always orgasmic-ally good 'Nine' all fly by with monstrous hooks that could herald in Moby Dick but still with spluttering, meandering, unpredictable sections that add depth and intricacy to music that could otherwise be contrived as short term radio fodder. The numbers are racking up as well. I think we may have reached 18 and signs are only looking better if anything, the band are even going back and expanding on the 'classics', introducing one number as "(insert song number) part 2". Optimism from band and fan alike couldn't be higher right now. Tonight was a comprehensive success and both a launch pad and tearful goodbye (at least for the time being) for the best Leeds success story of 2006. For sure.
