Live

Rose Kemp, Men Diamler, The English Tea, The Gorkanos - Blinking Lights & Other Revelations

Adam Simons 24/03/2006

Another week, another Feedback, and first up are bespectacled The Gorkanos with their scuzzy garage alt. Pop, sounding somewhere between Husker Dü and, with their harmonies and doo-woops and aaahs, The Beach Boys. Their short-sightedness thankfully doesn't cross over into their song writing ability and they've enough jazzy bass lines and topless drumming to win over at least this pop-picker.

The English Tea are something of a local folk super group but tonight, due to some dippy excuses, they are two members short. So, with a depleted band, Martin Chitty delivers some of his quintessentially English songs before the other two present band members join him for the full band set knocking out some quirky uplifting pop songs. Martin loses his voice half way through and rather than give up, he does his best Tom Waits impression; a gravel throated bark that leaves the audience… giggling.

Now for Men Diamler, and one must see past the indie kid exterior - the floppy hair, baggy jeans and trashed Converses - because it means nothing here. Men Diamler has one of those voices where all that means nothing. After he has psyched himself up with The Velvet Underground, those with a decent set of ears, and the common decency to use them to listen to the music they'd paid to hear rather than catch up on the latest gossip, are left bedazzled by one of the most amazing voices they are likely to hear. He starts off a-wailing and a-stomping out a traditional blues song; the easiest comparison is to Jeff Buckley's cover of “Be Your Husband” on the “Live at Sin-É” reissue.