20th November Gang of Youths: a muddled review


The album Angel in Real Time has been one of my most played discs of the past 12 months. Anthemic, melodic, uplifting and yet all based in the death of the father of lead singer David Le'aupepe, it is a glorious listen. So imagine my excitement when I discovered that they, they being Australian group Gang of Youths, were playing at Rock City here in Nottingaham. A visit to TOM's suddenly slipped down the list of priorities but please don't tell him that...lol

With a fabulous record to promote, a superb slinky swivel hipped frontman in Le'aupepe with his wonderful ecclectic stage presence and a voice to die for, it promised to be a great night out. It turned out to be an alright night out.

Managing to get a reasonable view from the upstairs balcony, the band came on stage with Le'aupepe quickly announcing 'my knee is f^%$£d, my voice is f^%$£d and the tour ends tomorrow' before launching into two songs I didnt recognise and literally couldn't hear a single word he sang, so muddled was the sound mix. And even on the songs that I did know from the new cd it took a while to actually recognise what it was.

Moving downstairs to stand, not in the middle of the mosh pit as you might have expected, but directly behind the sound desk, the aural quality improved slightly but I am sure my 58 year old ears are not to blame for the muddled melodies, indecipherable lyrics and cluttered choruses. Don't get me wrong the band and the show were great so perhaps it's just the acoustics of the venue that are pants. But if you go to listen and you then can't hear clearly it rather defeats the point of going in the first place.

This morning I got up and listened to what they played on Youtube. It sounded fabulous. I might even have thrown a few shapes in my living room. It's just a pity to rework a famous phrase of Dennis Norden, it didn't sound alright on the night.



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