Golden Silvers – The Sugarmill, Stoke 04/10/09

NME’s Radar Tour is designed as a yearly outing for relatively unknown bands in need of a leg-up. This year, however, NME has seen fit to bestow upon us not one but two Radar Tours – first there was La Roux, Magistrates, Heartbreak and the Chapman Family, now in this autumn tour we have the delectable lineup of Golden Silvers, Marina & The Diamonds, Local Natives and Yes Giantess. Glad of oppurtunity to see any show in Stoke with some potential of being half-decent, I leapt at the chance to make my debut appearance at the famed Sugarmill.

No thanks to a bus that was thirty-five minutes late, we finally made our way to the venue. With a small room, and yet a reasonably-sized stage to play on, first up was US-based Yes Giantess. Far from easing everyone gently into the show, these guys immediately pummeled us mercilessly with their towering slabs of synth – this bombast was enjoyable at first, but soon a suspicion crept in that these guys were something of a one trick pony and the feeling slowly grew. Fun enough, but Yes Giantess’ songs are a bit too samey and dayglo for my taste.

Next up were LA-based Local Natives, who were neither local nor native but emerged onto the stage with a much more organic and less synthesised sound. A fivepiece, four of their members stood in an egalitarian line in front of their drummer and belted our their pretty vocal harmonies. With an earthy, rough-and-ready look about them, the band pumped out some very ear-pleasing strident rock, culminating in a gloriously thrashy rock-out, lit only by intermittent red lights.

Thirdly came Marina & The Diamonds, who is in fact one of those singers who gives themselves a name that makes them sound like a band, when they also have a band, whose members are not included in the name. “Hi”, she said, with her backing waiting patiently behind her, “I’m Marina & The Diamonds.” Ludicrous. Anyway, clad in her American jock-jacket, the Welsh singer strutted her way through a few songs, including a blue-lit downtempo ballad and a very successful cover of Late of the Pier’s “Space and the Woods” which got everyone moving in the best moment of her set. Not bad for an act largely based around dishing out saucy looks to the crowd.

Eventually headliners Golden Silvers made their entrance. Playing an energetic and impressive set of songs from their debut album True Romance the band bestowed their unusual, hard-to-pigeonhole sound upon the Stoke gig-goers. Much has been made of the band’s doo-wop esque backing vocals, and these were out in force, really adding something to the sound. Vocals are definitely one of the band’s strong points – when the synths and drums are at their loudest and most bombastic they’re not allowed to shine, but when the music is more introspective, singer Gwilym Gold’s distinctive voice can shine through. He stood behind a keyboard on a huge decorative pedestal, making him look like some kind of angelic electro-preacher.

Although Gold dominates the band’s live sound, Ben Moorhouse’s excellent bass work occasionally takes centre stage and at all times the band sound tight and co-ordinated. With a slightly longer set than their support bands, the Silvers were able to gradually build momentum and let their more epic songs draw the crowd in, allied with an impressive and varied lightshow. The free Golden Silvers stickers and Radar Tour posters also helped make sure the audience left with smiles on their faces after this diverse, punchy show.

Yes Giantess // Local Natives //Marina & The Diamonds // Golden Silvers on MySpace