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Fever, Wigan
Thursday March 23rd 2006
 Heading down the dimly lit stairs to Wigan’s Fever, The LINC are met
with a familiar, unwelcoming sight. Indie poseurs gathered around in
their charity shop clobber like the high society of the music scene,
waiting to be impressed.
Yet tonight’s opening act, Your Bitter Ex Lovers (YBEL) seem less intent
on impressing as they are on creating a nihilistic fusion of aching
guitar and impassioned wailing that seeks to serve as routine slap in
the face to the uber-cool.
There’s a bootleg floating around on the Internet of Nu-Goff warblers
Evanescence jamming on a cover of Nirvana’s ‘Heart Shaped Box’, and as
YBEL kick things off with a trudging, grunge riff laden with haunting,
female vocals, such song quickly springs to mind.
As guitarist and bassist bury their heads, lost in the music, there
seems to be little to get excited about here, and you find yourself
taking your mind off the monotony of it all by playing a game of “Spot
the vocalist”.
For whilst the moody stringsmiths are all too visible and there’s some
slapdash drumming coming from the wee girl behind the kit, this lulling
vocal seems to be coming from nowhere. That is, until you look a little
closer and realise that ‘the wee girl behind the kit’ is actually
yelling down a mic in a Phil Collins-had-a-sex-change-and-went-grunge
fashion. Now there’s something you don’t see every day.
Yet, though we teeter on boredom, we’re soon slapped around the face as
one flesh-eating monster of a song crashes against the other, and we
realise that YBEL are actually quite cool. Cool that is, in a
self-indulgent, guitar-stroking, chaotic jam sort of way. If you’re a
fan of the more mental, less radio-friendly parts of Nirvana’s “In
Utero”, chances are you’ll get on with Your Bitter Ex Lovers.
St. Helen’s mob The Ups take to the stage next, and are absolute
rubbish. As criticism goes, that isn’t very constructive, yet neither
are The Ups. Fronted by a tallish bloke who dresses like our dads used
to, The Ups take the music of The Coral, play an Arctic Monkeys track
over the top, record the whole thing and play it on repeat for half an
hour. This is lazy, uninspired, processed garbage where every song
sounds exactly the same and is pin-pointed by a repetitive yelp of
“woah-ohhh” . Yeah, “Woah, oohhhhh what on earth is that awful racket!?”
Down with The Ups!
Hometown favourites Money and The Masses put a bit of bite back into the
proceedings, sharp vocals cracking out over some boisterous rhythms and
thumping beats that see the more lively parts of the audience flocking
to the front for a closer look. Some jovial banter from the ‘Masses
frontman (not to mention his comical repetition of the term ‘Money and
The Masses Maniacs’) add to the bands warmth and charm, as they bounce
through their spirited set. True, there’s nothing here that really
stands out as far as killer tunes go, but if it’s a fun, memorable
performance your looking for, you could do worse than putting your cash
on Money and The Masses.
As midnight draws closer, The LINC’s thoughts turn to heading back for a
nice hot cup of Horlicks and a bed time story, yet our minds are
promptly made up otherwise as Preston heavyweights The KBC hit the floor
to dish out some of their trademark funky, punk-lite pop.
After supporting New York indie kings The Strokes and signing up to
Manchester label High Voltage, The KBC hit Fever as part of their
nation-wide tour in support of their double A-side single Pride Before
The Fall/Poisonous Emblem, and proceed to make feet jive and heads
bounce with gusto.
Having been compared to everyone from The Rapture to Franz Ferdinand,
tonight, the boys bring something to the dancefloor that is uniquely
their own, as though they were custom-built by groovy, party-loving
scientists to bring good times to the masses and force anyone within
their vicinity to cut a rug.
And as they play into the night, The KBC make you forget all about the
mediocre sounds that had slid before them, and prove just why they’re
one of the biggest buzz bands in the country right now…
Recommended Links:
www.thekbc.net
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