I didn’t really know what to expect when going to see Irish outfit Noise Control at the Gibson rooms; I had a quick look at Noise Controls' MySpace earlier and had read a little press about how Noise Control had been personally picked by Liam Howlett of the Prodigy as support acts. I hadn’t realised until I arrived that actually that is precisely what happened; Noise Control had innocently sent him some of their music, not imagining much to come of it, and in true fashion of what you would never expect to happen, Liam had actually listened to it and further more,
selected Noise Control to support. Pretty impressive stuff, considering it was based on their music alone.
Drink in hand (free booze, woo hoo!), Noise Control came to the stage. A slightly older band than I was expecting (with exception to front man Mark Kid – hence the name, presumably), they did however look like your typical Does It Offend You Yeah/Pendulum type band;
a dressed down act that were refreshingly not about the image in an almost student fashion. After a brief introduction with a strangely un-Irish sounding front man (I soon discovered he grew up in Wiltshire, THEN moved to Ireland), they opened with the first song of the night, 'Solar Star' before moving into one of the highlights of the evening, 'Cities of Dreams' (Noise Controls' current single which is a joint double-A side along with 'Mudbath'). Impressively, both of these songs on the double-A side are going to be featured on the soundtrack for Disney’s’ interactive award winning action video game 'Pure', sharing a listing with We Are Scientists, Pendulum and the Futureheads. Again, not bad work for a band that have only been going two years and have yet to release their debut album.
The live version of 'Cities of Dreams' kept its' polished sound intact, with it's fast paced drum n' bass energy making it an anthem that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Friday night at Fabric. I so far was really enjoying this set, usually a bit of a purist with my rock n' roll preferences (ignorant I know), I was starting to come round to this non dark side of drum n' bass.
But then it truly fell into place with the next song making a huge impact. 'Our Life' could understatedly be described as an epic song; my friend commented, "this was meant for a stadium", destined for big things. Full of energy that took you on a journey, bringing their rock element tenaciously into the mix with the lead guitarist going crazy with the wah pedal. It was brilliant stuff.
The set followed on with the catchy 'Steel', instantly recognisable from their MySpace, then finishing up with 'Addiction', 'Catch the Race' and finally, the joint double-A side to 'Cities of Dreams', 'Mudbath'. Which, considering the calibre of the mid section of the set, was slightly disappointing as a closer. However, it did deliver in getting the crowd involved with the opening “Do you want to get dirty?” and you can imagine this going down well when they’ve built a bigger solid fan base.
All in all a really enjoyable set and that I would gladly go through again. Considering I never really understood the point of seeing “dance”' bands live, I have new insight and can and will do in future. Instead of staring at the band in an almost idolising fashion, you’re meant to just enjoy yourself, have a few drinks, dance around, have fun and not worry about what you or they look like. Everyone’s having fun. Everyone’s a winner. Death to pretentiousness! I'm all for it. Fans of Pendulum, Does it Offend You Yeah and Prodigy will no doubt love this.
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Noise Control at The Gibson Rooms 21/10/08
Noise Control @ the Gibson Rooms
