I recently went along to the Metro to see The Big Pink with girlfriend as my fellow attendee. We arrived early enough to catch the tail end of An Horse, a cute guitar ‘n’ drums duo who pumped out simple yet catchy indie-grunge tunes. The room was sparsely populated and I noticed that large black curtains had been draped halfway down the stairs to limit the venue’s space. Obviously not a sell-out show, which was a surprise as I thought I had a hot little ticket in my hand, apparently only lukewarm.
The room did however fill out a little more in time for the main act. Despite already knowing “A Brief History of Love“ was their debut record I somehow expected the band to be a little older, and perhaps a little more mature. From the moment they walked out on stage they seemed very much enamored with the notion of Rock ‘n’ Roll stardom and although the enthusiasm was genuine it just felt a tad underwhelming considering the size of the venue and the lack of bodies filling it. That being said they did manage to put together a tight set and extracted some interesting sounds from their guitars despite the formulaic approach of their songwriting. At times the sound touched on something very similar to the Smashing Pumpkins, which for me was personally quite nostalgic and enjoyable although it did feel somewhat derivative.
By the end of the set I felt weary from hearing ALL of the tracks from the album. As with most new artists with only one record behind them it can often feel like you’re listening to their sole album on shuffle, except the live version has taken the polish off the tight studio tracks.
All in all the gig was decent. I did leave feeling slightly underwhelmed but I attribute this to my high anticipation of the performance beforehand. Still very enjoyable and it will be interesting to see how they progress their sound on the second release.
Velvet is available below for you to sample.
Happy Music 