Gig Review: Voxtrot, Manchester Night & Day, 22nd February 2007

Voxtrot @ The Night & Day, 22nd Feb 2007When we saw Voxtrot at this same venue last August we also had the misfortune to see The Zetlands, a dire blues outfit who should only be allowed to play weddings, albeit ones that I’m not attending. I don’t know who did the booking that night but, sandwiched between the The Needles and Voxtrot, The Zetlands were plain wrong. Well, the same person must have booked the support for last Thursday’s gig as well because The Troubadours (yes, The Troubadours – if you can think of a less inspiring name for a band then I’d like to hear it) were shocking. The Liverpool music scene is stagnant, and has been since the early Eighties. Since then the likes of Cast, The Coral, The Zutons and The Dead ’60s have all had varying amounts of success but have drawn heavily on the past and offered little in the way of originality, or even decent tunes. The Troubadours are the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the Liverpool music scene. We could tell where they were from after hearing just a few a bars of the Coral-esque opener. There was a song that sounded like Cast and another like The Zutons. It was grim stuff and the fact that the singer managed to get the worst sound I’ve ever heard coming from an acoustic 12-string made it almost unbearable. The icing on the cake was the last song, “My Generation”. Yes, you heard right, they did a cover of “My Generation” a good ten years after the Gallaghers consigned that song to the thou-shalt-never-cover-me-again bin. It went on for ages and at one point the singer cleverly changed the lyrics to “just because we shag around”, the wag. I sat, head in hands, unable to even look at the debacle occuring on stage.

I was so numbed by The Troubadours that I barely remember the second band on, including their name, but I do remember that they were so bland that we were having trouble thinking of any musical reference points at all.

Voxtrot @ The Night & Day, 22nd Feb 2007Voxtrot were great; they had to be, it would have been a really depressing night if they had been anything but. Starting with the three title tracks of their EPs was a great idea and “Mother, Sister, Daughters & Wives” sounded particularly good. Despite the occasional technical problem and the odd mic stand with a mind of its own, Voxtrot played with a great amount of joy and enthusiasm, bouncing around the stage with all the energy that their sprightly songs demand.

About three songs in events took a comedic turn. A tall, drunken guy made his way clumsily through the sparse crowd and pushed right in front of the small girl standing at the front to JustHipper’s immediate right, leaving the poor girl exasperated that all she could see now was the back of a grubby white shirt. JustHipper, who is very small and is regularly pissed off by really tall men standing directly in front of her at gigs, acting like she doesn’t exist, began remonstrating with the guy, asking him if he realised what he had done and why it was wrong. The guy thought she was having a go at him cos he was dancing, which was not the case. Just as “Raised By Wolves” was ending she was raving at him and when the sound died the entire venue could clearly hear the words “…and that makes you a big cock!”. The band briefly looked to see what was happening before sadly deciding not to get involved and carrying on with some new songs. The guy sloped off during the next song, tail between legs.

The three new songs the band played, all of which, Ramesh claimed, might make the album, were typically dense, literate and poppy, so no great departure there, and all three augur well for their debut when it’s finally released. They also played a great version of “Soft And Warm” with Ramesh playing keyboards and closed the set with a decidedly Cure-esque “Missing Pieces”. Hopefully next time they’re over here they’ll be playing to larger crowds and have support bands that actually have something in common with them.

Voxtrot – Soft And Warm

12 Responses to “Gig Review: Voxtrot, Manchester Night & Day, 22nd February 2007”

  • Matthew Says:

    F*cking hilarious! Go on The Hip! I am 6’2″ myself and am scrupulous about who I do and do not stand in front of at gigs, but I’m going to be even more scared now in case I get accosted by an angry midget brandishing insults!

    My young lady is 5 foot even, so I find myself getting annoyed on her behalf sometimes. If it’s really bad I have been known to, on occasion, stand directly in front of anyone who has the temerity to block her view, which they tend to find really annoying, oddly enough.

  • JustHipper Says:

    I wasn’t shouting initially. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at her thinking maybe he just hadn’t realised what he’d done. I was hoping he’d just be polite enough to move behind her. She’d been taking photos and looked so so thrilled about being there. He started screaming at me and calling me names and pretty much said that I was a “bad fan” because I wasn’t jumping up and down and shrieking for the benefit of the band and how dare I try to stop him dancing. Except, like The Ledge said, I wasn’t. His dancing wasn’t bothering anyone and far be it from me to stop him enjoying himself. But when he refused to acknowledge that it was a bit rude to push in front of someone over a foot smaller than him and after he berated me for my “gig posture” I really lost it.

    It worked though, he moved.

    Why can’t people just exercise a little politeness and try to be aware of people around them? It’s not that hard and it makes everybody’s experience so much more pleasant.

  • Mr Dude Says:

    The Ledge

    Was reading the review as a big Voxtrot fan, and noticed you mentioned The Zetlands. I thought I’d check out that last review, but seeing it made me instantly not want to read another word you had to say.

    “The guy in front of us, standing right in front of the stage, spent their entire set reading a book and when they had finished proceeded to hurl insults in their direction. That guy was a hero.”

    I’m afraid that anyone who thinks hurling abuse at a band is HEROIC is not worth listening to.

  • The Ledge Says:

    Lighten up, Mr Dude, the guy was merely delivering his review of the band in person and was pretty spot on with his verdict which prompted a lively and entertaining debate with some of The Zetlands’ fans. I wrote my review in the comfort and safety of my own home like the wuss that I am.

  • Mr Dude Says:

    Afraid not Ledge!

    Hurling insults at ANYONE who’s up there having a go (more than can be said for self-proclaimed music critics) is not ‘merely delivering his review of the band in person’, it’s called being an idiot! I don’t see the point in behaving like that, even if you don’t like the band.

    I was at the gig watching Voxtrot and found the Zetlands quite cool really. They weren’t being cocky or big headed, just enjoying their music and didn’t seem to give a damn about that bloke. Personally, I just found I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked because of this guy who was clearly jealous and couldn’t bear not being the centre of attention (hence the pathetic shouting!). Anyway, just wanted to say that not everyone at these gigs appreciates things like that, there are other people trying to enjoy it! And since when does not liking a band give someone the right to treat them like dirt?

    PS I agree that you are a wuss.

  • The Ledge Says:

    Mr Dude, you quite obviously weren’t at the gig because a) you would have mentioned it in your first comment, b) the guy started hurling the insults AFTER the gig while the band were unloading their gear, during the gig he was reading a book and so couldn’t possibly have ruined your enjoyment of the performance, c) you said The Zetlands were cool, which means that either you’ve never seen them or you are a member of The Zetlands.

  • Cattle Says:

    I made is as far as Cast and the Coral “not having decent tunes” and realised what kind of fadhead review I was reading. Your critique of the Troubadours is worthless. Now go put some pink streaks in your hair and do a blog about the ecology.

  • Edgar Says:

    “I barely remember the second band on, including their name,”

    Watch out – we’re dealing with a SERIOUS review here!

    Surely with these journalism skills, the likes of JustHipper and The Ledge will be snapped up by NME, Top of the Pops 2 or the Salford Reporter’s music page!

    Not only is the critique of the Troubadours worthless – the critique of the un-named other band is worthless and given the blatant star-struck obsession that TheLedge and JustHipper seem to have when watching a band … all the way from AMERICA – the critique of Voxtrot is also worthless.

  • JustHipper Says:

    Eh? What, cause some band who never said their name? We go to probably 2+ gigs a week. Some nights we’re exhausted from a full day’s work but we have the tickets so we go anyway. Sometimes the acts on are so goddamned boring that there’s not much to remember about them.

    How about you set up a blog and review hundreds of live sets a year by bands you’ve never heard of prior to setting foot in the venue without benefit of a recording device to jog your memory later and then see how you do.

    You are right about one thing: The Ledge is really taken with people all the way from America. That’s why he married me. I, on the other hand, find other Americans invading my patch rather irritating cause it makes me feel less special.

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