Young Knives w/ Pete & The Pirates – Carling Academy, Oxford 21/12/08

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I sometimes refer to Carling Academy Oxford as “the venue formerly known as the Zodiac”. It makes me feel good to put in a little Prince reference, and it also stems from the fact that calling the place by its new corporate name still just doesn’t really feel right. The consumption of the Zodiac by the Carling Academy franchise resulted in a very expensive renovation of the whole place, and these days it’s very swish indeed, fulfilling as it does the role of Oxford’s main live music venue. What better place to stage “Homecoming Oxford”, a night headlined by Young Knives, a band who adopted the city as a second home to help kickstart their career?

First though, Hreda kicked things off. A trio like Young Knives themselves, Hreda offered their brand of stop-start, explosive post-rock. The instrumental band evoke strong comparisons with bands like Explosions in the Sky, and their rousing efforts helped to get the evening off to a good start. Unfortunately one of the band members decided to turn his back to the crowd for the majority of the set, which made his noodling look even more esoteric than it sounded. Tristan and the Troubadours were up next, a very youthful seven-piece with a very interesting set up – an electric violinist, a shaky, agitated singer, and multiple rotating drummers. Their keyboards often seemed a little odd, sounding like a knackered saloon piano, and during the first couple of songs everything was a little bit rough around the edges, but as their set wore on, their confidence seemed to grow and they began to make good on the wider soundscapes of their more ambitious songs. Their exuberance and inexperience were quite endearing – you could see past the imperfections in the sound because there was something warm and earnest behind everything.

It was Pete & The Pirates that really kicked things off though, taking up where the first two bands had left off. They immediately had the rapt attention of everyone in the room from the first song, and for the first time in the evening, all the levels were perfect, and everything sounded fantastic. Most of all, the band seemed to be enjoying themselves – their energetic rock conducted that enthusiasm into the audience and their set flew by. Looking thoroughly comfortable on stage, Pete and his crew made a sly “piracy” gag, powered through a few more songs, and by the time they left they had everyone thoroughly warmed up for the headliners.

Young Knives though, quickly started looking like a damp squib. Not even Thomas “House of Lords” Dartnall’s bootlace tie could eliminate the nagging feeling that something was missing. After playing a new song, the band confessed “we hadn’t played that before. It was a bit shit.” The on-stage banter was muted and awkward, the songs not a great deal more engaging. Some of the bigger anthems like “Terra Firma” got people going a little more, but the nagging feeling remained, alleviated a little by a guest trumpeter, ‘Smokey’, for the last couple of songs. Assuming that an encore would be wanted, the band strolled off and came back a minute or two later, even more underwhelming than before.

There’s no doubt that it was Pete & The Pirates that carried the night, but it was an eclectic and entertaining night nonetheless – and whilst the headliners may have been a little disappointing, there was more than enough talent on display to keep everybody engaged. These are bands worth looking out for.