Giant Drag @ Joseph's Well
By Dave Sugden
Joff Whitten is a rather talented boy: a solo performer he mixes an acoustic guitar, a bass and wistful vocals, throws them all into a loop, swaps instruments, generates layer-upon-layer and comes out with some rather intriguing folk-pop. His inter-song banter, stage confidence and audience rapport are good too; an all-round entertainer.
I'm not so convinced with the tour support act Foreign Born - or headliners Giant Drag to be fair. When Foreign Born evoke comparisons to the likes of Arcade Fire then yeah I can see a lot of potential to their melodic indie-pop, but a lot of the time it's just plod and tiring. They try to add some oomf and rock it up a bit, but as a collection of songs the set just seems a little short on ideas. The gems are there but there is no middle ground between them and the stuff I'd not expect to make it as b-side considerations. To be honest with you, I drifted off on several occasions and found myself imagining these floppy haired boys playing a far better soundtrack but this time penned by Beck and Evan Dando.
Hmmm, I've read good stuff about Californian duo Giant Drag, but there was something lacking in tonight's performance that made it kinda hard to correlate with past words. It's proving a struggle to put my finger on just what it is I consider to be missing - although I'm leaning towards there being a lack of energy and sparkle (read entertainment). The songs in themselves aren't so bad (quite endearing actually) and forthcoming single "This Isn't It" is par for the Giant Drag course ... that being understated, dreamy lo-fi with an equal dose of fuzzy-guitar rock. Yet as front girl Annie, whose in-between song chat sounds like that of a 10-year-old, repeatedly complains of the venue's heat, it makes me wonder if the missing piece I moan of is actually caused by fatigue...
