The Fat Cat Records label is a Brighton, England institution; they have signed highly divergent, up and coming acts from across the globe, from Sigur Rós to Vetiver, from Frightened Rabbit to Vashti Bunyan. So I took much delight in hearing that the label was sending several of their signings over to North America for a tour. For the Washington date, the three acts being featured at the Black Cat were the Scottish bands We Were Promised Jetpacks and the Twilight Sad, and the English band Brakesbrakesbrakes.
Glaswegians We Were Promised Jetpacks were first up. The band recently put out their debut album, These Four Walls, and they’ve been garnering a lot of attention stateside. I loved their song “Roll Up Your Sleeves” the first time I caught their video online. Singer/guitarist Adam Thompson looks like a Boy Scout, but boy, he sure doesn’t sing like one. They’re rock, they’re punk, they’re everything in between. They’re also very young guys, which probably explains band members joking with each other between songs and Thompson’s telling us about the stench in their tour bus when its generator broke down, leaving them without electricity or running water. In response to this, someone in the audience quipped, “Just like Scotland!” to which Thompson replied with a sideways laugh to bassist Sean Smith, “They think we run around in kilts back home, don’t they?” There was a collective laugh throughout the club and then the band launched into “Quiet Little Voices” with Thompson’s searing vocals: “In any which direction, call me / I will run for you! / I’ll come for you! / I’ll die for you! / I’ll come for you!”
With Thompson and Smith, Michael Palmer (guitar) and Darren Lackie (drums) are an explosive unit live. Sometimes you aren’t sure how the first act of the night is going to be received; I’ve been to some gigs where you could hear people’s conversations clearly in between the songs because there are so few people present and most of them are not really paying attention, just taking up space and waiting for the headliner who comes on later. This was not the case with the Jetpacks’s set at all. Despite the band order, it appeared that many of people present were there specifically for their set and alighted as soon as they were done. A lot of people sang along, and Thompson was so happy with the reception and so many people showing up for their set, he lit up the room with his smile and said by far this was his favorite night in America so far on this tour. Mission accomplished, Washington.
After brief shifting of equipment and gear, the stage was set for the arrival of Brakesbrakesbrakes. In my head I’ll always think of them as Brakes because that’s what they’re known as everywhere in the world except America (courtesy of a Philadelphia band who had already called dibs on the Brakes moniker here in the States), so they will be referred to as Brakes for the rest of this review. Of the three bands, I’m most familiar with Brakes’s back catalogue, and they’ve never played Washington before, so I was excited to say the least. Their third and latest album, Touchdown, was released back in April.
They’re an extremely versatile band, with songs running the gamut from folky, country rock (“On Your Side”) to punk (“Porcupine or Pineapple”) to more straight forward rock ‘n’ roll (“Don’t Take Me to Space [Man]“). Singer/guitarist Eamon Hamilton led Brakes (with Thomas White on guitar, Marc Beatty on bass, and Alex White on drums) on a rousing set of 16 songs across their three albums. “Hey Hey,” a raucous, guitar-heavy tune from Touchdown, was a joy to hear live finally, along with “Don’t Take Me to Space (Man),” my favorite off the new album. One enthusiastic fan exclaimed that being that we were in D.C., the band had to play “Cheney,” a song from the band’s first album Give Blood; it’s a five-second tirade against our former not-so-beloved vice president. Hamilton rewarded the fan by asking him to “count in” the song for them. It went over so well that another fan was chosen to do the same, to even louder audience cheers.
Brakesbrakesbrakes set list:
The Most Fun
Shut Us Down (Camper Van Beethoven cover)
Hey Hey
Ring a Ding Ding
On Your Side
All Night Disco Party
Porcupine or Pineapple
Hold Me in the River
Worry About It Later
Why Tell the Truth (When It’s Easier to Lie)
What’s in It for Me?
Isabel
Don’t Take Me to Space (Man)
Cheney (2x, counted in by two different audience members)
No Return
Jackson (Jerry Leiber/Billy Edd Wheeler cover)
Two hours after we started, it was now time for the Twilight Sad. We Were Promised Jetpacks cite the Twilight Sad as one of their influences, so it’s quite appropriate to have them on the same tour. The band just released their sophomore album-length effort, Forget the Night Ahead, here in the U.S. last month. Singer James Graham decided to begin their set with a decidedly-toned down mood compared to the acts that came before: he clutched his mike as if his life depended on it, and knelt down on the floor as “Reflection of the Television” chugged to life thanks to his fellow bandmates Andy MacFarlane (guitar), Craig Orzel (bass), Mark Devine (drums), and touring keyboardist Martin Docherty. They remind me a bit of the Horrors, with their swirly guitars and keyboards set off by moody, pensive lyrics; “The Room” and “I Became a Prostitute” are good examples of this. I didn’t felt the same kind of energy from them that I did from the previous bands. Maybe it was because it was a Monday night, it was late, and it was Washington, but they just didn’t set me alight.
Stay tuned for an interview with Marc Beatty and Eamon Hamilton of Brakesbrakesbrakes coming soon!
We Were Promised Jetpacks: myspace
Brakesbrakesbrakes: website | myspace
The Twilight Sad: website | myspace
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