Live Review
Get Inuit/LIFE/Tibet
The Social, London
January 12 2016
Words/Photos: Linn Branson
Tonight's 'Huw Stephens Presents' bill is both wide-ranging in terms of style and the spread-out locations where each of the three hail from.
First is four-piece Tibet; not, funnily enough, repping the East Asian territory, but the land mass of... er, Cardiff, Wales. Fronted by left-handed guitarist Joel Hurst (brother Ethan also plays in the band), Tibet whip up the kind of perky beats that have not just been impressing fellow Welshman Stephens and Radio 1 cohort Annie Mac, but has put them on a fair few tastemaker lists as a band to hit big this year.
All sporting the same round-neck style of t-top, though each in a different shade (perhaps their own signature colour - like the Teletubbies?), they run through a fast-paced set of 60s-inspired alt-rock combining tracks from last year's debut EP - 'My Girl' and 'Fridge' (an explosive mix of energetic chorus along with melodic verses) which they kick off with; latest track, the poppy vibed 'She Don't Know', and closer 'I'll Put You In My Pocket' (a kind of Welsh glam stomp) - and the recently released follow-up, with 'See You Out Tonight' as one of the set standouts.
No matching garb with the North East's Hull punks LIFE. Mez, the in-yer-face, swaggering frontman clearly makes the band known in his black leather 'Life' embossed jacket, and the rest... well, they don't. If Tibet were the Beatles of the night, then LIFE are the Rolling Stones: darker, more dangerous - and don't let your daughters anywhere near them. They're fast and ferocious and put up an insistent force with the likes of 'BaBaBa' and previous single 'Membership Man'. On 'Take Off With You', one can't help but think if Jarvis Cocker had come from Hull - in view of Mez's posturing and mannerisms, more than the song's style, it has to be said.
LIFE have been around for a few years now (and previously as The Neat) as one of those bands who can get a crowd going, yet seem not to have broken through as strongly as might have been expected. That could be about to change, however, as new single - and their finale tonight - 'Popular Music', appears to be garnering radio as well as fan favour. “Totally off my face, I listen to popular music,” Mez cuts, sneeringly, with a curl of the lip, in this barbed reflection on popular culture that concludes on a squall of feedback. Get Inuit's vocalist Jamie Glass later describes LIFE as "like the Sex Pistols, but Northern". Pretty much spot on.
And that brings us to lastly, from the Arctic regions of Greenland come....oh, what? Sorry, I meant... from the glorious South East of England (well, Sittingbourne, Kent anyway), we have Get Inuit. The curious thing here as the four-piece get under way, is that if one was asked, unknowingly, what kind of music they thought bespectacled, computer geek-looking vocalist (with very unique vocals) Jamie might perform, more likely would be the response of something gently acoustic than what transpires to be far more get-up-and-going surf-grunge rock. Who'd 'ave thought it, eh?
With their catchy riffs and singalong melodies, Get Inuit fill the relatively small split-level room of The Social, as they rip through their repertoire of "dirty pop" (or, slightly grubby pop-rock), from the likes of the joyous, head-boppers ‘I Would’, ‘Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated’ and ‘Electrify’ with its glorious hooky, off-kilter pop-punk chorus, to the infectious ‘Pro Procrastinator' and the zipping slacker pop Weezer styled single release of last year, 'I Am The Hot Air', before concluding with new single 'My Oh My', all crunchy, chiming guitar exuberance and showing just what Get Inuit excel at.
LIFE have been around for a few years now (and previously as The Neat) as one of those bands who can get a crowd going, yet seem not to have broken through as strongly as might have been expected. That could be about to change, however, as new single - and their finale tonight - 'Popular Music', appears to be garnering radio as well as fan favour. “Totally off my face, I listen to popular music,” Mez cuts, sneeringly, with a curl of the lip, in this barbed reflection on popular culture that concludes on a squall of feedback. Get Inuit's vocalist Jamie Glass later describes LIFE as "like the Sex Pistols, but Northern". Pretty much spot on.
And that brings us to lastly, from the Arctic regions of Greenland come....oh, what? Sorry, I meant... from the glorious South East of England (well, Sittingbourne, Kent anyway), we have Get Inuit. The curious thing here as the four-piece get under way, is that if one was asked, unknowingly, what kind of music they thought bespectacled, computer geek-looking vocalist (with very unique vocals) Jamie might perform, more likely would be the response of something gently acoustic than what transpires to be far more get-up-and-going surf-grunge rock. Who'd 'ave thought it, eh?
With their catchy riffs and singalong melodies, Get Inuit fill the relatively small split-level room of The Social, as they rip through their repertoire of "dirty pop" (or, slightly grubby pop-rock), from the likes of the joyous, head-boppers ‘I Would’, ‘Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated’ and ‘Electrify’ with its glorious hooky, off-kilter pop-punk chorus, to the infectious ‘Pro Procrastinator' and the zipping slacker pop Weezer styled single release of last year, 'I Am The Hot Air', before concluding with new single 'My Oh My', all crunchy, chiming guitar exuberance and showing just what Get Inuit excel at.
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