Well, that was massively underwhelming. I don't know the music of Zombie Zombie that much (and I would be tempted to check it out), but tonight's show was pretty disappointing. I'd been looking forward to this gig all week, and I had asked myself the question "how could you go wrong playing the music of John Carpenter? So simple, so effective, how can you mess it up?". Well tonight I got the answer. By being really dull.
Of course, a huge part of this I guess is the fact that we do a Carpenter medley every Halloween, and I must say I think we do it better. I was prepared to be shown up by Zombie Zombie, but it didn't happen. The set felt sloppy and loose in a bad way, like they hadn't properly rehearsed it before. The keyboard player only played one note synth lines and didn't bother embellishing with chords or leads. And the drummer, while good, just felt a bit out of place. Surely by now anyone can tell that Halloween is in 5/4, so why bother playing a 4/4 beat underneath it? I see now that the show was "commissioned" by the Glasgow film festival, which makes sense. I thought this might be a passionate side project for the band; instead it feels like something they were offered too much money to do to refuse.
On a brighter note though the support act were excellent! It was Findo Gask doing a special tribute to the music of Yellow Magic Orchestra. I think their performance might have added to my disappointment with the headliners. They came as five, they had matching outfits, and they were tight - all of which can't be said of ZZ. We were most impressed by their range of synths too - upon arrival we assumed they were Zombie Zombie's. We should have known better.
But then who the fuck am I to judge? Make up your own minds! Both of the sets from the night are now up on Sub City radio to listen to and enjoyed/loathed.
Zombie Zombie play John Carpenter:
http://subcity.org/podcasts.php?id=419
Findo Gask play Yellow Magic Orchestra
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