From what I'd heard, it didn't seem like going to watch a 'band' called Fuck Buttons would really be a good idea. (I try to be late, allowing myself to get sucked into fixing mp3 tags on my jukebox before we leave. This is no simple task. I have about 200 songs without track numbers, which means my player will play them in alphabetical order, which is annoying). But anyway...
Unfortunately, when we arrive there is the distinctive vibration of white noise coming through the walls of the Junction, echoing out into the street and mingling with the sound of traffic. The traffic sounds better, in that it at least carries an element of indeterminism which lends some interest and the possibility of a moment of quiet. Fuck Buttons allow no such respite. There is the briefest of pauses between tracks before the next huge noise. Underneath the wall we hear some primitive rhythms beaten out on drums, the noise is filtered via the laptop into other forms of noise while the boys scream into microphones and a Fisher PriceTM Karaoke toy.
It ends at last and we can finally leave behind this kindergarten of pointless noise children who hit things. We only had to put up with it for five minutes, but I think I'll try to avoid ever having to put up with it again. Scarecrows offer a refreshing contrast featuring music that sounds good at first, but they don't seem to know what to do with the few good ideas they have. For a couple of songs it is okay: decent grooves, amateurish drumming from the violin player, a good baseline. After the fourth song starts I realise that this is going to be more of the same until the end of the set. My attention fades, my mind wanders back to thinking about how many songs to which I could have assigned track numbers in this time...
King Alexander save the evening with their cheeky brand of shrieking shouty college punk mixed with that 1994 guitar pop sound. Which is good, because Ack Ack Ack are a bit, well strange and not that exciting (no web site, but mp3 here). Sure, they are loud but the ideas again are few and the singing from inside a gas mask is a bit lame. In fact the guitars aren't loud enough in my opinion, yet another one of these bands that tries to play metal without heavy guitars and ends up sounding thin and harsh. The drummer's displeasure at the performance is evident at the end of the set when he throws his cymbals angrily behind him. I didn't sense many mistakes, in fact the drummer is incredible, but the teacher in me wants to write could try harder, lots of enthusiasm, needs direction.
Such incredible negativity from someone who commented so little on the actual music from the night. It just reads like a bitter and twisted missive against nothing in particular. At the very least review the gig, not just pour venom. If you don't like it, say why!! This is a very poor review, you shouldn't have linked it from the Drowned In Sound website without at least having a grasp on the English language. I might not have myself, but I don't pretend to. Poor stuff.
Well thanks, anonymous! Sometimes there just isn't that much to say.
I do however believe that apart from the mp3 stuff, everything else in my writing IS about the music.
I DO say why I don't like it.
I linked it because I was interested in how different my experience and opinions were from Rrachels. I don't see anything in the reviews on there that make them more valid or better written than mine.
Perhaps such constant negativity isn't very productive, I should have added some sort of clarifier, like 'if you like this sort of thing which personally I don't...' I guess my writing style isn't for most as I don't believe it's possible to be truly objective about music, but there it is.
And please, pretty please don't tell me I don't have a grasp of the English language! I think in that respect I can just tell you to piss off.
PS. As always, when you are as scathing as this to bands, there is a backlash! I suppose I could have kept this review to myself, but what the hey - people have a right to know!
See Choke thread here: http://ttyc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=16747
ummm, delusions of grandeur, perhaps?
oh come on! the internet makes everyone a writer. even me.
this guy didn't like the bands, and he's conveyed that. it's not an especially interesting or well-flowing review, but it's successfully got across its message: that talking about mp3s is in fact a lot more interesting than listening to some shits with laptops thinking they're musicians just because they stand on a stage and thinking they're beard-strokey because you have to work to find any point to them at all.
good job, mr reviewer.
Thanks mate,
In the interest of fairness, here's someone else on the internet who thought almost the exact opposite:
http://www.drownedinsound.com/event/view/16053
Ah, the power of suggestion!
No, I just know that the bands will read this because they have been told about it.
Good to see this is turning into the usual meaningless personal attack versus reasoned defence here, another legacy of the internet I suppose.
people have RIGHT to know what? your opininon? jeez....
No... It's only fair that if I write stuff about bands, then they get to read what I'm saying, whether it's good or bad.
They have a right to know what people are writing about them, whoever they are. The internet has a lot of crap on it, I'm just part of that.
I'm not such a coward that I won't stand up for my opinions in the interest of debating about music.
if your trying to be a critic dont, if your trying to write properly dont.
a simple peice of journalistic advice, cut to the quick and talk about what you want to talk about, rather than talk about retagging your mp3 collection for more than 1/4 of the article before talking about the gig your supposed to be reviewing.
also try highlighting the positive side of bands, all 3 reviews are distinctly negative, how about providing feedback about what you would like to see?
Well, sometimes I'm just not trying to write a proper formal journalistic review, sorry. Sometimes there isn't much that is positive to say.
These things are my experiences of gigs, what I think about bands and I am damn well going to have an opinion on what I see. This is what happened that night, what I experienced.
Please don't tell me ALL critics, journalists and reviewers of music never say there is nothing of merit in a band's performance? Never crucify a band through their influence?
'Be Honest, and Unmerciful' is my motto (obviously stolen from a well-known film and old music journo Lester Bangs).
I try to avoid dictating to bands what I would like them to sound like, it's their choice and certainly for Fuck Buttons I think they achieve their aim but I don't like it.
I concede that the mp3 stuff, while not close to being more than 1/4 of the article (60 out of 466 words) is a bit out of kilter. Please feel free to read some of my other reviews and come back to criticise me some more!