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 RYANS GIG GUIDE MAGAZINE LIVE REVIEW. The Coach House, Solihull. Reviewed by TIGER (she's a HAAARD woman ! ;-) June 2004 Issue. The bands CHILDISH snide jibes appear in (RED) ! How many times do I have to tell you bloody guitar prima donnas? (YUP WE AGREE!) Prancing about like the ministry of silly walks every time there's a bit of a guitar break just does not impress anybody!! (OH ANG ON ! I DUNNO IF THATS RIGHT....SILLY WALKS ALWAYS IMPRESS US....JOHN CLEESE FOR EXAMPLE....HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN HALF AS IMPRESSIVE WITHOUT HIS SILLY WALK.....!) I think someone had been plying Tiny Blue Children's drinks with dangerous levels of Red Bull (WHAT SOME PEOPLE WILL DO TO SLEEP WITH THE BAND.....!) cos they just couldn't have looked more ridiculous, at times akin to watching the Muppet show cast having a mass jerk-off. (A CLASSIC...OUR FAVOURITE BIT !) This was a new and not particulary favoured venue for me, although it's a fairly big pub, front of stage viewing space is limited to only a few feet and TBC were intent on taking up every square inch of it (WELL SOMEBODY HAD TO FILL THE BLOODY PLACE!), with both guitarists - Ben Alexander and Rob Houghton - out front right from the off but, not to be outdone, we ended up with all three string players out there, as Nick Smith (HE'S LIKE THAT, WAS LEFT OUT OF EVERYTHING AS A CHILD, APPARENTLY!) joined in the free-for-all (NHS!) strut (MICK JAGGER!) about (JEREMY BEADLE!). For Fucks Sake!!...(NOW COME ON TIGER YER MUM WOULDN'T LIKE THAT!) isn't that what your front man's for? (ERM.....NO...NO...HE'S THERE MAINLY FOR SHAGGING DODGY GROUPIES AND FALLING OVER AT THE END OF THE EVENING....!!) And...after all, it's only a bit of sodding strumming or the odd solo....Rocket science it most certainly ain't! (OH....COME ON TIGER.....NOW YOU'RE JUST NITPICKING!). OK. Rant over for now....(PHEW! WOMEN!) So then, best to take singer Gareth Jones', advice to the timid audience: (NO...NO...TIMID...NAAAA HE WASN'T THERE...TEEHEEE! ;-) 'Best just stay in ear shot....you don't wanna see us'. Acoustically, its also a pretty poor venue and with instrumental levels set very high, Gareth's voice was decidedly muffled at times, which was surprising for a guy with one of the best (O GOD HE'S IN LOVE AGEN!) and most powerful voices on the local scene. The thing is, I really like TBC's stuff. (REEEEEEALLY!? ;-) I've seen the band several times - always at outside venues where they've gone down a storm (TRUE!) - and, despite the ordinary looks (O COME ON, THE RODNEY TROTTER LOOK PULLS THE BIRDS YOU KNOW!) their produce is big, bold and truly memorable (WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT B4!). 'Wide eyed ideas' and '14 Again' are just classics and every time I hear them I wonder why they haven't broken completely free of the local circuit yet. So it was it was with disappointment to hear that they hadn't really moved on that much with the new tracks they performed - 'Panic and Frustration' and 'Authority', which were still utilising those same catchy riffs that made their old ones so appealing. Worse than that, superb as Gareth's voice is, there were several instances when he was less than note perfect. Now it could be argued that, with a semi-sung, semi-yelled vocal style, it doesn't really matter but it just wasn't the high standard we admirers have come to expect. Even their demo CD (the rough cut) I found I was finding the same faults. Musically speaking it's still hard to fault them: Dean Cook's drum attack was a really awesome opener and he continued to thrash that lovely Leopard skin kit mercilessly, although, with his fucking frantic head banging, its a wonder he wasn't too disorientated to hit a damb thing. Style wise, it's rock at its best with a tangible US influence in there...especially on closing tracks 'Smells like TV' and the Clockwork Orange inspired '655321' which were really heavily reminiscent of Pearl Jam (but then again you can't fail to notice the Vedderish tones of Gaz's voice), whilst new track 'Authority' had a distinct Jimmy Eat World feel about it. Even so their material has a definate 'Made In England' branded boldly across it and despite all the nit-pick-ing at this crappy place, TBC's music still shone out as an intelligent alternative to most of the pap that's currently doing the rounds and, somehow, you just can't help feeling that that lucky break must be just around the corner and then, next thing you know, they'll be driving some huge festival crowd wild. So then, a little dismayed here cos these guys are definately capable of better performances....Ahem....Perhaps concentrate on the music and not the theatrics??! And I can definately live without the sliding-in-on-the-knees finale! (OOOOH...THAT WAS OUR 2ND FAVOURITE BIT!) But guys...if you wanna REALLY good review....don't write your set list on the oppo's mag (OUR 3RD FAVE BIT!...HEEHEEE!) yer cheeky gits! (SHE LOVES US REALLY YOU KNOW!) Check out www.tinybluechildren.com for all the latest news and a lesson in how to creat a website worth visiting (HEEEHEEEEE......MAYBE ITS OUR CHILDISH WIT.......ALWAYS BEEN A PULLER YOU KNOW!) JUST AS A LITTLE NOTE, THIS REVIEW INCLUDED A FULL COLOR FRONT COVER OF THE BAND ON RYAN'S GIG GUIDE.........AND ALL OUR CHILDISH COMMENTS ARE ALL MEANT IN THE BEST POSSIBLE JOVIAL TASTE....THANX AGAIN FOR THE REVIEW TIGER......FIRM BUT FAIR....AS USUAL!) |
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