Gig Review: The Organ, Life Café, 17th July 2006
Let’s make this quick; this was over a week ago and it’s too hot to be sitting at a PC (regular viewers may notice that updates on this blog are getting increasingly sporadic with the hot weather. Will we see JustHipper’s account of day two of T In The Park any day soon? I don’t know). The back room of The Life Café was bathed in daylight when openers Stop It You’re Killing Me took to the stage, mumbling their name so we didn’t actually know what they were called until the next day. I hate it when bands do that. How are we supposed to go out and buy your records if we don’t know what you’re called? They were a young three-piece and their grungey indie rock went down quite well except for when the singer transformed his voice into a weird guttoral moan which he did at some point during every song. Not sure why he did that but I’m sure the songs, some of which were rather tuneful, might have been better without his strange random vocal affectations.
I’d only heard a couple of tracks by The Organ prior to this gig and so didn’t know what to expect but the band put on a fairly intense live show with much attempts to out-stare the audience and little interaction between songs. Guitarist Debora Cohen in particular remained impassive throughout, her faraway stare bordering on the plain bored as she fired out her post-punk guitar lines with a consumate ease. Singer Katy Sketch, she of the rather wonderful Debbie Harry-esque voice, prowled the stage, completely wrapped up in the music, her vocals barely audible thanks, I think, to our position directly beneath the PA system. Those couple of track I’d heard, “Brother” and “Memorize The City”, were excellent and virtually everything else they played stuck to a similar formula except for the set closer, a mellower affair for which Sketch played a tiny acoustic guitar and we could actually hear every word she sang. It was probably the highlight of the evening.
July 27th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Now The Ledge, that’s hardly fair. You know I had the whole Day 2 review written and was adding in pictures when WordPress decided to eat half of it. It shall be dutifully recreated at some point in the near future.
And I was less than impressed with the on-stage demeanor of most of The Organ. While I liked the songs, and Katy Sketch was very good, the rest of the band just looked bored. But with such poppy, energetic songs the whole “Oh, I can’t be arsed, let me stare into space” thing was just a bit off-putting, particularly from guitarist and bassist. You should go buy the album though. What are you waiting for?