Wildlife
The stage, already shrouded in cloth and smoke, was dimly lit and gave an edgy feel to the set. With their matching arm bands Wildlife took to the stage to some sort of orchestral battle music that built the suspense further until finally the familiar strains of Stand In The Water began to emanate through. (The singer actually broke the trance by asking for the lights to come up and with his overly casual 'Hello, how are you?' after all the suspenseful build up.) Effectively the band played throughout the concert mostly as if it were one seamless piece of music as opposed to a collection of songs (though songs like When I Get Home were included). This meant instrumental interludes in the dark but again this all played toward making this show something special. It was as if they were in a state of constant crescendo and it was constantly awesome. One interlude saw them bring out two remote controlled inflatable sharks that a were flown all around our heads until nearing the end of Brand New Weapon they began to get torn apart.
Other flairs included a trombone on Drunken Heart and two new songs (first about kerosene, second 'rely on me'). Money From God not only had double stand up drums but also the return of the trombone and an invited additional singer (who really, really wanted the crowd to be as excited as he obviously was).
They played Sea Dreamer to appease the crowd and then the moment I'd imagined months earlier while being overwhelmed by Killing for Fun in my headphones. "How amazing would this build into whoa-oh singalong be live?" Better than I imagined actually as everyone was 'losing their minds'. That was still before the much delayed encore (lights up, house music on) that was Baba O'Riley. Oh yes. As if the night hadn't already been fantastic enough!
Topanga
Topanga came out with a four man yell-along and were generally very upbeat throughout. The lead singer was small but packed a punch and their drummer, on stage for the second time this night, showed those drums who was boss. All this energy was infectious and someone even tried to crowd surf during Lion Heart. Their instrumentation was going for epic and achieving it. A familiar song for Radio3 listeners, Oceans, hit its mark too before a Hives cover (Hate to Say I Told You So, what else?). According to my notes they closed with My Boo but according to their discography they closed with Mabu. Regardless they closed out an energetic set with a song.
Pkew! Pkew! Pkew! (gunshots)
With a name like Pkew! Pkew! Pkew! (gunshots) I'm not even sure what I was expecting. I'd heard of them a heckuva a lot (though the sources were long forgotten) and so had expectations for an entertaining gig without a clue of how that would be delivered. What we got was a tongue-in-cheek indie rock show with punk pacing and fun that didn't disappoint in the least. Especially not the crew up front who were practically moshing from the first track and didn't mind the beer froth shooting all around them as the five members played their chords. Four of the members sang as they shared duties and occasional harmonies, even introing a song with Diddy's Bad Boy For Life. Even if the music if rather straightforward it still sounds great and it's really hard not to smile and enjoy yourself when the lyrics are "If those were your glory days, you must be real shitty now!"
Reversing Falls
Reversing Falls were a simple three piece who started out over a drum track before this role was taken over partway through the set by Sicks(?) from Topanga, one of the later acts. Though the set was enjoyable enough there wasn't much too memorable about it. They held out and played their biggest song Is This Thing On? last.
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