NME Awards Tour 2009: Live Review, Nottingham Rock City, 11th February 2009

2009-02-12 09:23:08

So here I am at the Nottingham leg of the NME Awards Tour 2009 and I can’t help but feel the whole thing is degenerating into a bit of a farce. I mean, who hasn’t heard of all of the acts on tonight? Let’s face it, you’d have to be living on the outer skirts of Azerbaijan to not have done. They may as well call it The Radio 1 Backslapping Indie-Night-Out, seeing as it’s their playlist that’s performing to the sell-out crowd at Rock City tonight. But I digress.
    
First up we have the stunning Florence Welch, otherwise known by her touring name of Florence And The Machine, who’s blessed with the type of razor-sharp talent that makes you wonder ‘why the hell is she so bloody low on the bill?’ With a set that differed little from the awesome one she did last November at Nottingham’s Social, this girl truly is the stuff of dreams. Or maybe nightmares. Really good ones though.
    
Powerhouse of a voice
    
She sings Girl With One Eye like a woman possessed, pausing only briefly before bringing the house down with an ungodly scream. She veers between the majestic harmonies of Hospital Beds and the bitterly infectious pop of Dog Days Are Over like some sort of magical hippyish druid, charming us all with that powerhouse of a voice. No wonder she’s already been nominated for a Brit Award. Really though, it should be the Mercury.
    
Next up we have the frankly disappointing White Lies, who really are bloody everywhere at the minute; Fearne Cotton’s iPod, on the inside of a toilet seat, round your mum’s gaff for bleedin’ Sunday roast, yes, everywhere! It’s a shame that all the hype around them at the moment is little more than that because there are glimmers of genius in their short set that leave me feeling somewhat irritated.
    
Ruins it by going all girly
    
Frontman Harry McVeigh shows a deep bass baritone on To Lose My Life that makes him sound exactly like Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, but then he ruins it by going all girly and higher-pitched on some of the later numbers. Drat and double-drat, like Dick Dastardly used to say. Still, the bouncers in the moshpit are earning their keep by fending off an array of crowdsurfers during their set, so someone loves them.
    
One of the acts I’m looking forward to tonight are St. Albans’ Friendly Fires, who are shamelessly bringing the funk back to Nottingham since their last appearance back in June! Yeah, they may be white and nerdy-looking, but their hearts are as black as Josef Stalin’s and their tunes absolutely killer. It’s a damn shame then, that a year’s worth of non-stop touring has left them totally bloody knackered and a little bit senseless. How else could you excuse the glaring omission of Photobooth, one of the snappiest tracks on their glorious debut album?
    
Nu-rave's his skinny ass off the stage
    
Despite this, the set is ace, with full double-drumming calypso style madness taking hold during Jump In The Pool, Paris and On Board. The set-closer Ex Lover even sees frontman Ed Macfarlane going a bit insane in the membrane as he twiddles knobs, wiggles hips and nu-rave’s his skinny ass off the stage. I miss this lot already...
    
And so we move to the headliner. I make no secret of the fact that I think the NME Awards have tended to err on the side of insanity with some of their choices of headliners over the years, and tonight sadly, is no exception. That’s not to say that Glasvegas are bad, certainly if tonight’s crowd reaction to Geraldine and Daddy’s Gone, combined with the general reaction to their last show here are anything to go by, they were thoroughly enjoyed.
    
A bit of a damp squib
    
I just don’t like dirgey, painfully slow, early-U2 style rock. No offence kids, it doesn’t do it for me. And after the lively, energetic and inventive sets from Florence & The Machine, the battered Friendly Fires and to a lesser extent White Lies, Glasvegas were a bit of a damp squib. Oh well, it’s still fun to be out at night, or so I have to keep reminding myself. Now to flip my DAB back to the hilarious prank calls on Radio 2…
    
Review: Michelle Dhillon
    
Images: Lucy Bellamy, more of the good stuff here
    

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