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In Pictures and Review: TOWNS at Birthdays [Live]

23rd October: Birthdays, London

by cfaruolo, October 24th, 2012 and has been Read 1148 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies October 25th, 2012.

The last time Weston-Super-Mare’s TOWNS (note the capital letters) were in London, they were playing to an overcrowded and sweaty 100 Club in support of Paul Weller and Spiritualized. Now, ten days into their current tour, they come to Dalston’s hipster haven, Birthdays, tonight being part of The Fly’s Ones to Watch live series of gigs.

Its not exactly packed to the rafters here, but it doesn’t seem to bother TOWNS’ charismatic front man, James MacLucas, who chirpily wanders round the venue, glass of red wine in one hand, chatting to friends in the crowd, whilst looking very much like an extra from the Fenn Street Gang with his long hair and long sleeved black top.

Ever since the Horrors released their third album ’Skying’ last year, we’ve been bombarded with a crop of new bands being tagged by the music press as “Shoegaze”, “Baggy”, “90’s revivalist”, “Britpop”, etc. TOWNS are one of these bands. You can pretty much bet your life savings on the fact that at least The Stone Roses, Ride or The Charlatans will be name checked in any review you’re going to read to about them (including this one). But TOWNS are far from a 90’s tribute act and tonight manage to insert similarities from these bands into their music yet at the same time still sound fresh and modern.

Taking to the dimly lit stage, that only has a single spotlight behind them, the room suddenly fills and everyone pushes to the front of the stage. Just two minutes into their opening number ‘Dig Your Heels’, an up-tempo psychedelic gem from their current Sleepwalking EP, James and guitarist John-Paul Beaumont’s are on their knees as they both furiously thrash away at their guitars creating a sound reminiscent of fellow “90’s revivalists” TOY, but without the added pretentiousness.

“Alright, London! How’s it going?” asks James. The Dalston crowd are far too cool to reply, but they can’t help exerting themselves and bopping along to the fuzzy bass and swirling guitars of ‘Sleepwalking’, the title track of TOWNS’ current EP that was released on Monday. The head bobbing continues throughout the next couple of tracks:‘Marbles’, a short number allegedly written about “a girl that should have been sectioned a long time ago” and ‘Just Everything’ which sees James and his band mates’ slim silhouetted figures clashing and pushing into each other on stage, as the killer bass line and spiraling guitars fill the room.

The band are back on their knees again as they power through their heavily Charlatan-esque debut single ‘Fields’ before announcing their “party song”, the B-Side to the aforementioned debut, ‘Heads Off’ which sees John-Paul on “Ooooh Ooooh” backing vocal duties as James exclaims “Everybody’s running around with their heads off”.

James and John-Paul treat us to a quick guitar duel as they rub their fret boards together to create a wail of scratching and feedback before ripping into ‘Everything’s Out’, the final number of the evening.

The band storm off stage as the guitars continue to wail for a good few minutes. The audience stand there in hope of an encore, but it never comes, and eventually the lights come on and the guitars stop ringing.

If all this talk of a Britpop revival is true, then tonight TOWNS have demonstrated that they’re a band at the forefront of this revolution and will definitely be playing a major role in the next chapter of great British bands.

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