Alien Frenzy
Jun 19th, 2007 by Donagh
So Jim and I went to the Aliens gig last night and after a late start in the ever so small Crawdaddies, the band appeared looking like they’d raided the local Oxfam shop. Lead singer Gordon Anderson wore green luminous rimmed dark sunglasses under what looked like a Disco Stu hair piece, while keyboards expert John Maclean sported a Sergeant Peppers type jacket with gold trim and burnished epilates which he managed to chuck pretty quick. The first track, Setting Sun, blistered out frantically and was immediately followed by another track, the name of which escapes me. The shaking of Anderson’s mop during the guitar frenzy proved that this musical wig out was not performed using false hair.
While trying to get his breath back after playing straight into the second song Anderson began to indulge in some whacky verbal antics. Having a rapport with the audience is often a cool way for punters and band to connect and to make an evening’s entertainment a bit more special. But it’s a fine balance. Anderson efforts, whether out of nerves or habit, soon started to get a bit annoying, as the funny voices and impressions began to hold back the momentum of the gig. In fact, someone shouted ‘momentum!’ out during one of his longer ramblings, which were often punctuated by the self imposed injunction ‘get on with it!’
However, when the music began again, all annoyance was forgotten and towards the latter half that much vaunted momentum managed to be maintained. The Aliens music is not exactly original. Riffs from other bands and artists abound in all their songs. Setting Sun has the riff from Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower and after one track Anderson dedicated the song to Manfred Man. Each one, however, whether infused by soft 60’s folk or psychedelic space rock, still had enough of its own musical tomfoolery to bring it beyond simple pastiche.
Ultimately the music was fun, energetic and great to listen to. The last tracks Robot Man, Rok and Happy Song which is ridiculously catchy and exuberant and ended a relatively short set, showed what the rest of the gig should have been, if only Anderson had piped down a bit more and got on with it.
Interesting, I hadn’t clocked the Beta Band connection when I saw them on the BBC3 arts program the other night. Sort of thought they were like the somewhat late lamented Regular Fries… or Happy Mondays crossed with Hawkwind…
Yurp, I didn’t mention the Beta Band in the review, although Jim did in the previous post, or did I mentioned that Anderson left the Beta’s half way through the recording sessions for their reputation establishing 3EPs. I didn’t even make reference to his 10 year hiatus in mental health hell because reviewers seem to be using it to suggests that Anderson is a latter day Syd Barrett, the ultimate ‘tormented musical genius’ whose creativity is so volitile and visionary - almost hallucinogenic - that he can’t keep it together long enough to make it through the recording of an entire record.
Regular Fries is a good reference, although I think they were more Hawkwind than Happy Monday as the latter were too infused with late 80’s rave loops and disco grooves to fit well with what is essentially a fusion of 60 and 70’s psychedelic pop with the quirky, blip heavy modern dirge that made up much of the Beta Band’s output.
Clearly no spring chickens then, if they’ve been through the Beta Band, and in fairness they didn’t look it either…
Funny how Regular Fries dropped from sight. I was a bit irked to see them described as ’soft rock’ on wiki.
Odd you should mention trance and Hawkwind in the same breath. Their post early 90s output took a sharp dive into rave loops. Very odd. Amazing how all these linkages establish themselves.
Anyhow, respect to the Aliens for their catchy melodies and their excellent hairstyles…