I managed to miss the whole of Lethal Bizzle's set, because they swapped the bands around, and added a fourth name to the bill. The Wombats were supposed to be 3rd on the bill, and I knew from MySpace that they were on at 8:20 - the addition of an act called South Central, I assumed, would be opening up just before them. I turned up at 8:15 to find out that South Central were the superstar DJs playing in between the bands, and that Lethal Bizzle had been and gone. Annoying, because I was really looking forward to seeing him.
So, The Wombats started my evening off, and they were thoroughly excellent from start to finish. Even the presence of a very annoying couple right in front of me - who were arguing loudly, then crying, then snogging throughout the set - didn't manage to put a dampener on it! They had a huge proportion of the crowd that were really into them, and there were hundreds at the front, jumping around enthusiastically. There were even glowsticks being hurled between band and crowd. All in all, it was like The Wombats were headlining!As for the music, it was excellent throughout, every song was really good I thought. The highlights (just) were the ones I knew, but even the ones I'd never heard before sounded good - can't wait to get the album on my iPod. They seemed to be having a lot of fun on stage, and the crowd were enjoying it all too. They finished up with current single Lets Dance To Joy Division, and Backfire At The Disco, then departed. I have seen worse headliners than that - obviously it was a short, high energy set, but they really were excellent.
Before The Enemy came on, the DJs were playing some indie classics from the mid-90s, including Reverend Black Grape, Common People, and Bittersweet Symphony. I had forgotten how incredible the latter is when played loud, and when the drums kicked in, I had a shiver going down my back. When the entire venue joined in singing all the words, it was a fantastic moment. At the end of the song, all the lights went down, The Enemy came on stage, and after a short graphic thing on their screen, went straight into playing Away From Here - which sent the audience (especially those at the front) absolutely mad.
The Enemy are 3 borderline chavs from a shitty town (with a very short, ratty-looking boy as a singer), and they sing about how crap life in a dead end town can be. So, the crowd they attracted were also pretty chavvy, and many from dead-end towns too I suspect. In that respect at least, they are quite similar to Hard Fi. However, this does make their songs a little bit boring after a while - yes, we know that Coventry isn't very nice! Yes, we know that having a job with no prospects is crap. We also know that lots of people write music as their main way out from a crap life. But it does get a bit repetitive after the fourth song about it.
They did sound good (especially for 3 people, it was a big noise), but I thought that the singles were obvious standout tracks - and there was a lot of formulaic "indie by numbers" beyond that. Maybe if I'd listened to the album more, I might have got into this gig a bit more, but judging by what I saw here, I'm not inclined to listen to the album too much. They sound good, and are clearly competent musicians, but I just find it hard to get too excited by many of the songs they write.
There was one song in the set, the title track of the album - We'll Live And Die In These Towns - in which I thought I was listening to a cover - the verses sounded exactly like That's Entertainment by The Jam. But when the entire venue started singing along with the anthem chorus, I realised that The Enemy may not be the most original band around (far from it), but they do seem to be getting very popular. I don't see it myself - it is strange that they will sell many times more records than a band like The Maccabees - but then it is even stranger that Snow Patrol and Keane will sell even more than that.
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