Tall Ships w/ Tangled Hair – The Rest Is Noise, Brixton, 07/12/10

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Tall Ships

It is a typical Tuesday night in Brixton: the streets are packed, the nearby pubs overflowing and obvious gig-goers are heading en masse towards Brixton Academy. For the second night in a row New York indie rockers Interpol are headlining the venue, their name emblazoned in lights across the distinctively domed building. Yet just around the corner something altogether more exciting is unfurling in The Rest Is Noise: the Big Scary Monsters Records Christmas Tour.

With a wall filled with vintage cameras behind the bar, collections of antique lamps clustered around creaking leather sofas and ceilings decorated with more plastic animals than a toy shop, the venue is eclectic and slightly off-the-wall, an aesthetic atmosphere that suits tonight’s acts and their original offerings. Support comes from Londoners Toodar, a five-piece with a 4:1 boy:girl ratio. They announce that this will be their last gig of the year, and celebrate with a set of acoustic, upbeat pop songs with an electro twist, the singer’s soft, lilting voice perpetrating the sizable crowd, with occasional bursts of backing vocals, keys and accordion drones from his female counterpart.

What The Rest Is Noise projects in atmosphere and quirkiness, it lacks in its ability to provide a decent staging arrangement. While the stage itself is a good size, it is surrounded by tables and chairs, many with their seat backs facing away from the stage. This, as well as a huge pillar right in front of the stage, does not make for easy viewing, and many are forced to watch Toodar from the sidelines, or peering behind the pillar, unable to get past the groups of people sat around the tables.

The gap between Toodar and Big Scary Monsters’s first act of the night Tangled Hair sees band members unravelling reels of fairy lights, wrapping tinsel around microphone stands and tying baubles to their guitar pegs, adding to the mass of holiday decorations already behind the stage, albeit leftover Halloween ones. Tangled Hair begin their set, their noisy arrangement of tenor-led, percussion heavy songs a strong contrast to last year’s tour’s acoustic offerings of Kevin Devine and Shoes And Socks Off. The trio are extremely tight, which comes as no surprise when you consider that despite Tangled Hair’s relative infancy they’ve been playing together for years, with two thirds of Tangled Hair being ex-members of Colour. With hints of their former band’s mathy-pop music, Tangled Hair take a different approach with their new sound, with slightly stripped back guitars and percussion that loses none of the wonderful lyrics and melodies that made Colour so special.

Playing predominantly new material such as ‘Right There’, and other songs that no doubt will be included on the band’s forthcoming EP, the band segue between jagged loudness, when intricate drumming collides with a heavy, bluesy bass line and singer Alan Welsh’s rich voice, to moments where the pace slows down before it picks right back up again. The band forego better known, piano-laden gems such as ‘Cardboard Hilltop’, but when they play ‘Trains Are Broken’ there is plenty of air punching from the front, and the familiarity of acapella lines “Everyone is sober/ And I am on my own now” cajoles the crowd into singing along, albeit not as in tune as Welsh. Tangled Hair wind down their terrific set to great applause, but not before a few baubles fly off their guitars and into the audience.

As Tall Ships set up on stage, I realise that this is the sixth time I’ve watched them play this year. Spending most of 2010 touring with the likes of 65daysofstatic, Tubelord, Maps & Atlases and Minus The Bear, Tall Ships are definitely a band to hear in a live environment and they get better each and every time I watch them play. Tonight is no exception, and as the band delve from song to song – each an amalgamation of genres and influences – the audience size swells and suddenly the previous obstacles are no longer a problem, as people stand on the tables and the chairs are cast aside.

Since releasing their second EP in a year, Tall Ships’s set list has changed to incorporate their newer material, songs such as ‘Plate Tectonics’ and ‘Chemistry’ played alongside older tunes like ‘Words Are Pegs Upon Which We Hang Ideas’ and ‘Beanieanddodger’. Although predominantly instrumental, songs such as ‘Vessels’ and ‘Chemistry’ intertwine layers of loops and riffs with lyrics, showcasing the band’s knack for unusual yet sentimental lines within the fast-paced, loud, sequenced music that they play on stage. Their use of loop pedals is at the heart of Tall Ships’s music, and even ‘Bearandblitz’ is played via loop pedal as a short instrumental interlude between their last few songs rather than its role as an outro on their EP.

Fitting with the festival spirit of the tour, ‘Snow’ injects a slice of seasonal cheer into the air. Beginning with soft and intricate guitar harmonies and backed by soft thuds of an analogue drum machine, Ric Phethean’s soft vocals of “Come inside out the snow/ We’ll keep you warm, we’ll clear the edges” sweep around the room and the song steadily gains momentum, adding layers of repetitive guitar melodies and the real drums kicking in full-force. Instrument swapping is a key ingredient in Tall Ships’s live set, and ‘Snow’ highlights this to perfection, with bassist Matt Parker doubling his strings by slinging Phethean’s guitar around his neck, while drummer Jamie Bush retreats to a single snare at the side of the stage and allows Phethean to take over and completely thrash the drum kit.

Not escaping the Christmas sentiments at the heart of the tour, Tall Ships don an assortment of Santa and elf hats halfway through their set, and end with a couple of cover songs, first a verse of Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ and then a song that the band claim they “wish we’d written ourselves” – Craig David’s ‘Seven Days’. Crap Christmas karaoke this isn’t, instead the band put their own twist on David’s Rn’B original, building guitar riffs and adding electronic elements and their own percussion-heavy instrumental bridges. Although a far cry from their own indescribable blend of amalgamated electronic fare, the crowd absolutely love it, and the atmosphere in The Rest Is Noise is absolutely phenomenal. Glancing around the room throughout the set, it is clear that the crowd is rapt with awe and know every word, accumulating in the repetitive, rumbling chant at the end of ‘Vessels’. As the roar grows through the room the band stops singing and break into collective grins, this chanting a sign of the achievement and success that they have garnered this year. If this thundering reaction, and the definite buzz around the venue once their set is over is anything to go by then Tall Ships can definitely look forward to their live ventures in year ahead.