Nathaniel Green @ Joseph's Well
By Tony WinterThis New Years treat sponsored by Bombed Out Records filled the well for a day with 11 rockin bands. Non-stop good music at Leeds/Britain's favourite venue (tests have proved) where the beer flows like, er, wine? Throw in a good cause and you can't go wrong. Music without the guilt, dirty dirty punk to rock to filthy Indie and the proceeds go to charity (Cancer Research). Hoozah!
Here's just a few:
Twofold follow up the amazing 'Everybody is going to die' with a leap from a comatose state (although they were very good) to being very wide awake. From instrumental indie-rock to in your face punk-rock. They've got the Blink182 caps-a-plenty (slightly to one side, obviously) look and the rough cut skate-punk sound. This three piece take their influences from Good Riddance and various other Fat Wreck Chords associates. They put on a very loud angst-ridden performance and set the pace for the day.
This Ain't Vegas are energetic, emo-style, indie-rockers from... Sunderland. Can't have it all, eh. But what they do have is amazing. They've combined the early sounds of the 60's but eloped from the terrible clean-cut sound and hair that seems to latch onto such an era and progressed towards a more rugged, angular rock, punk LOUD horizon. Their enthusiasm knows no bounds and the singer/band give it their all with an energy that is reminiscent of the Strokes. It's a moving experience as they glide through their set gradually gaining more and more respect from the crowd especially with such trouser stirrers as 'Die if you want to' and '100 miles an hour'. Somewhere along the line Radiohead's vocal sound made love to Fugazi's guitars, and some dirty sounding punky-rocker rubbed himself all over their love child. Pure filth, but it sounds sooo good.
Nathaniel Green provide yet another flavour for the musical pallet with an acoustic set. It's folk guitar with keyboard accomplice covered with indie rocker lyrics. The thing is every other song seems to be about girls in some way or another and how they are so 'nasty' and stuff. Haven't we heard this before, a thousand times, from so many other indie bands that just can't get laid without weeping about it afterwards. The music is good, it's soothing on the ear drums after the last couple of noise makers, but it's more like a tea break than a performance. Hey, who cares, it was for a good cause, these guys are better than Jesus, except I'm sure he had better luck with the ladies. Nice keyboard.
The rest of the day became a smudge on the lens of life, but I'm told somewhere along the line these guys played:
Skip Day Toner, The Mercy Suite, Blocko, Fig 4.0, Eighty Six, Dugong, Joe Ninety. And they were all great.
