winter wonderland reviews

[sunshine]

http://www.beehivecity.com/music/suede- ... land78324/

Suede & Manic Street Preachers rock XFM Winter Wonderland
December 16, 2010
By Adam Sherwin
It’s a show guaranteed to sell-out almost as quickly as Macca’s 100 Club gig and a reliable guide to health of the “indie” music scene.

XFM’s Winter Wonderland boxes up a mini-festival of six acts, who deliver an ”all hits, no filler” set, if they’re smart in front of a festive Brixton Academy crowd, for a live radio broadcast.

Tennessee rockers Mona strut and pose like they’re headlining the O2 Arena, instead of opening the gig for 6:30pm early arrivers. Singer Nick Brown has an authentic Kings of Leon Southern rasp and beneath the blaring volume, the band seem to have the anthemic choruses to take them to the stadia they’re heading for – unless they get swept up by a KoL-backlash.

The Drums might have imagined they’d be playing further up the bill given the hype that accompanied the Brooklyn band earlier this year. Jonathan Pierce delivers on the Morrissey-esq twirls but the crowd only really respond to Let’s Go Surfing. After losing a guitarist, The Drums need to re-invent a jangling sound that is to candy-sweet over an extended play.

The floor fills up for Two Door Cinema Club, the young Northern Irish band that has been the under-the-radar breakthrough in a poor year for the guitar-based indie XFM thrives on.

In an audience, that includes greying Manics veterans and their offspring, the kids know every word to bouncy, compact sample-enhanced Two Door hits, aimed squarely at the indie-disco, like I Can Talk. The quartet play with bags of energy and Grint-faced singer Alex Trimble still looks surprised at the adulation the band has swiftly attracted.

There’s a danger they could be a “gap year” band like The Wombats but if there is to be a resurgence in guitar bands, Two Door are likely to get their rewards on next Summer’s festival circuit.

The Xmas spirit is quelled a little by White Lies, the London band whose melodic if a little gloomy debut album topped the charts two years ago. The lengthy tracks debuted from 2011 follow-up Ritual suggests the band are on a mission to create the most epic record ever released.

Harry McVeigh has a commanding baritone and whilst the crowd accepts the new stuff with patience, their breakthrough tracks, Fairwell To The Fairground and Death are greeted like conquering heroes.

They might not get a catchy song covered by an X Factor winner like Biffy Clyro but they could follow the Scots band in to the larger arenas enjoyed by Muse.

Suede were billed as special guests but drummer Simon Gilbert has flu and is a no-show. Rather than pull-out Brett Anderson performs a brief acoustic set with Richard Oakes and Neil Codling. Trash and The Beautiful Ones are sung back lustily by 4,000 fans. For those who’ve not seen the band on their triumphant comeback, it’s a tantalising taste of what’s to come next year.

And so to the Manic Street Preachers for a headline set. The band know what’s expected, so there’s no extensive excavation of the new album. They kick-off with Motorcycle Emptiness, run through singalong favourites If You Tolerate This, Your Love Alone…, You Love Us. It’s an embarrassment of riches, before signing off for Xmas with ultimate anthem, A Design For Life.

The Manics or Suede will probably be headlining this event in 10 years time, such is their catalogue of indie classics. There’s enough life in the newcomers tonight though to suggest that the next generation of indie guitar-slingers won’t let the old guard have it all their own way.

[mark]

already posted on my fb but thanks anyway!!!!! I guess it's nice for the other two or three people who regularly visit this forum!!!!!

[sunshine]

lol... i keep looking for more (reviews)!

[mark]

i check youtube evey day for suede stuff - sad I know!!!!

[Florence]

already posted on my fb but thanks anyway!!!!! I guess it's nice for the other two or three people who regularly visit this forum!!!!!

like me.. i'm a facebook resistant, so far

[mark]

well i never used facebook until josé wanted me to watch one of his videos!!!!

[sunshine]

and now you spend your life there!

[mark]

[sunshine]

get out more!

[mark]

how dare you!!! I was out yesterday shopping in town and went for a walk and as usual i will be out tonight to trawl some pubs and see some shitty local band!!!! And most of last week I was in London don't you know???!!!!

[sunshine]

yeah yeah

[mark]

[sunshine]

haha... i was reading today the guardian I bought on Friday at the airport and found this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/de ... NTCMP=SRCH

Showy Drums, weathered Suede and freshly minted Manics
Xfm Winter Wonderland – reviewBrixton Academy, London
3 / 5

Caroline Sullivan
Thursday 16 December 2010 21.29 GMT

Record labels consider guitar rock to be neither big nor clever at the moment, but a sampling of the genre's past, present and (possible) future was on display at Xfm's seventh annual Winter Wonderland show. The once indie-minded radio station set out its now deeply pedestrian stall as per its established formula: there were a few new bands, a few stuck in mid-table limbo and a biggie or two. This all added up to four-and-a-half-hours of skinny men and large amps.

The openers, Nashville quartet Mona, appear to be aimed at those who can't get to grips with the Kings of Leon's sophistication. They've made the longlist of the BBC Sound of 2011 poll, supposedly because their charismatic Pentecostal backgrounds add a pinch of juju that differentiates them from guitar-rockers ordinaires, but here they sounded like straightforward garage-bangers who'd cranked the sound up to 12. Brooklyn's Drums (no 5 in the Sound of 2010) were showier – there was a rubber-legged guitarist and a floppy frontman – and better. They also had the advantage of having a song the audience knew, Let's Go Surfing, which, like everything else they played, was ultra-sharp, steeped in melody and performed with gusto.

White Lies have been around since 2007 and, having failed to muscle Coldplay and Muse aside as predicted, have found a perch halfway up the tree thanks to a handful of airplay hits. Their sound was the biggest of the night, in all senses: shamelessly dramatic and laced with orchestral samples, To Lose My Life and Death were compelling, if not exactly Christmassy.

The newly reunited Suede appeared, minus indisposed drummer Simon Gilbert, to accept an Xfm Inspiration award and play acoustic versions of Trash, Animal Nitrate and Beautiful Ones. "We haven't really prepared for this very well," apologised Brett Anderson, but this was an example of tunes being so good that even scrappy, skeletal renditions didn't dim their flame. The cracks and weathering in Anderson's voice made these songs about bright young Londoners sound sad and decadent. A result.

Some of the Manic Street Preachers' songs were older than the audience, singer James Dean Bradfield noted, so he must have been pleased that the likes of Motorcycle Emptiness and You Love Us inspired as many outthrust arms as recent hit (It's Not War) Just the End of Love. Still manifestly excited by the music, he and bassist Nicky Wire – the usual hysterical mishmash of leopardskin coat and yachting cap – leapt and dizzily danced to a familiar set that felt freshly minted. Though you sometimes wondered what they'd sound like if Bradfield stopped shoving through songs like they were pub brawls, they remain a force. As a cover of Wham!'s Last Christmas segued into Motown Junk, it was hard to imagine pop without them.