Reviewed on 19th April 2006.

The Xenith Sound

Live at Cockpit on Wednesday, 12th April 2006

Sweat drips from every pore; they bleed your life and finances here folks. Here been the cockpit. Atmosphere is sold in bags, buckets even. Young trendies yabber and titter over shiny new converse and white studded belts. But what of the bands, and moreover what of their music?

Travel back and year or so and this interweb site tells a tale of a fair bunch of men who went by the name of "Meme", they gigged and I penned. Skip forward again and this youthful quartet have ripened and matured, they have adopted a new name The Echo, at least allowing me to establish that their band name picking ability is feckin' shocking. The music though, well the music is something to behold.

If Buddy Guy was white, and born in England, he would be lead boy Andrew Barton. For Sig. Barton has a bluesy rock-rasp which spears through every song The Echo play, saturating and driving the melodies. The bass is deep and bruising, the skins tight and manic and the delightful keys pads , which come from Sam Woodings talent filled fingers enhance what is a already a superb backbone. Standout "Trouble on the horizon" parts 1,2 and 3 is a rock-opera (rockpra) which manages to twiddle your heart strings, tap your feet, and crucify your ear drums all in 5 minutes of mayhem - superb.

I would hope The Echo would be clasped tight to the bosom of the Leeds hierarchy and held aloft sometime soon, headlining this wonderfully dingy pit cant be far round the corner.

But perhaps they just ain't punk enough, for pin-up boys The Humour seem to have captured a larger crowd, the oldies who swayed to The Echo have vanished to the bar and the young hipsters have descended. And by young I mean "how the flamin' hell did they get in" young. Ok, maybe it's me ageing (gracefully).

So what's to write home about, well frankly bugger all. For The Humour are about as exciting as a day on the bowling green, with my Gran, sipping earl grey, with Daniel O'Donnel crooning in the background. They are a boy band, with a few guitars and a vocalist who can scream. I'm all for attractive bands, in fact more 18 year old glamour models must start to rock-out in my humble opinion. However, pretty boys that have abundant charisma and stage presence, but severely limited talent take the damn biscuit.

It just bloody bores me, really. Emo kids cavorting around on stage with no real musical direction and more talent for using hair straighteners than being rock stars. I can't be arsed going on, after The Humour's performance I overheard one of the aforementioned 14 year old girls saying "Oh god that were ace, they are gonna be bigger than Fightstar. I cant wait to tell Shelly". She will tell Shelly, probably in maths tomorrow morning. And the Fightstar reference, she is probably not wrong.

Completing the line up of crapped named bands are firm local heroes The Xenith Sound, and god Hell hath no fury like The Xenith Sound's aged crowd. I am nearly killed by a couple of tits behind me within the first 5 minutes. They are swiftly ejected and so we remain breathing to watch the set. And Jesus these guys are good.

Surely having a lead singer who looks like a Texan deadbeat can only be a damn fine place to start. Bassist Jake halls adds to the pickle of insanity by cavorting around the stage like Karen O on acid. And then the guitars scream into the mix, canning the Cockpit's acoustics and stripping my ears clean. Again bluesy rock is the taste, the strong vocals of Toff banks triggers my mind to past Leeds faves The Blueskins. It's all about tight, manic guitars and basslines and permeating crisp vocals. It's a difficult and clever mix; saddling ultra sturdy musical clout alongside an edgy stage act. These guys nail it.

The Cockpit is rammed; ok it ain't no Wembley but I guess it's bloody hard to pack this place out with people, especially when a good hundred or so have only come to fawn over another lead singer and get out of doing their homework. So hats of to The Xenith Sound, they engage and destroy just about every eardrum in the place. Their music is often muddied and rampant, but always worthy of attention. So stand up troops.

Comments

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On 20th April 2006 at 00:41 Anonymous 4084 wrote...

Wow. Now that is harsh!

On 20th April 2006 at 14:31 Anonymous 4717 wrote...

That is really cruel, dont take what this guy says to heart. I was at the gig and i have to disagree with almost everything you said. Of course what does it matter il probably just some smart arsed pretentious comment back.

On 20th April 2006 at 17:34 Anonymous 1500 wrote...

I thought the review was pretty spot on. The Echo were bloody excellent and The Xenith Sound will go far. Thought the review of The Humour was a little harsh, they were entertaining enough really. I particularly enjoyed watching the entourage that followed them!

On 21st April 2006 at 07:57 Anonymous 1205 wrote...

Ben, tis a bit unfair to presume something about me without even knowing me? Why would I come back with a smart arsed comment, its all just opinion after all!

I knew taking a harsh approach would upset some folk but its just how I felt on the night watching the bands, and I write as I feel.

Aye, and I bet you did enjoy watching their "Entourage" wander about. You dirty little tinker : )

On 22nd April 2006 at 13:14 Anonymous 5633 wrote...

which fucking gig were you at. the humour owned the stage that night. their sound was better there proformance was better than the other bands. taking nothing away from the echo and xenith sound. they were good but didn't look half as comfortable on stage. a true professional carries on no matter and they did that wen some how a random got on stage. not one note was dropped. i think your review is unfair and outrageous. you need to get your head out of ur arse and listen to some proper bands.

On 22nd April 2006 at 14:15 Anonymous 1205 wrote...

Ahh, how refreshing. Using insults to make a point. Well done sir.

You obviously ignored the bit of my review where I did say the humour had stage presence in abundance. So I agree with you on that. But does stage presence alone make a band decent? In my opinion no else otherwise there would be blinkin tonnes of amazing bands, and that simply aint the case.

You totally disagree with me, and thats fair enough and it would be feckin boring if we all agreed. But presuming that I never listen to decent bands and like good music because I dont have the same taste as you is pretty mental.

You seem passionate about music so why dont you get your pen and pad out and add a voice to the bands you stand behind.

Peace
Out
D

On 22nd April 2006 at 15:46 Anonymous 4084 wrote...

I was just concerned that the review was VERY personal. Fair enough, it is your opinion that we were crap! Not everybody is going to like us, it would have been better though if you were a bit more constructive, I'd like to know where we are going wrong as opposed to a bing rant about how young our fans are!!

On 22nd April 2006 at 20:08 Anonymous 5633 wrote...

fair enough but i would have thought the review was about the bands music and proformance. and 99.9% of the humours review is about their fans. who cares how old their are its the music that counts in a review not the fans. bands make alot of money having a young following. but anyway i think in future reviews you write you should concentrate on the music thats on stage and not what your obviously looking at off stage.

On 22nd April 2006 at 22:30 Anonymous 4717 wrote...

to be honest even though i dont agree with the review an opinion is an opinion there is no such thing as a right and wrong opinion there is only a different one. who are we to say how he should or should not write his reviews. i thought the gig was great and do disagree with what he said but danny seems like a rather intelligent guy, he hasnt lashed out or tried to be witty like most people on this site try to do (a genrelisation i know but just look thoguh many of the posts on this site and you will see). just trying to calm people down thats all.

On 22nd April 2006 at 22:36 Anonymous 2871 wrote...

To be fair, the review gives me a fairly good idea of what The Humour soundlike. How correct it is, I can't be sure, having not heard the band. But to say that 99% of the review is about the fans the band brought it bollocks.
Essentially, I get from this review three things:
1) The Humour's fans weren't polite enough to watch the support acts (a minor point, but it's fucking annoying when fans do that)
2) that The Humour put on a good performance
3) that Ric didn't really like the music very much. Which is fair enough.

To be honest, I'm sick of the whole "this was a good piece of writing, but a rubbish review", "can you not be more constructive". My favourite reviews (and almost everyone else's, unless they happen to be on the receiving end) are really witty, well written slatings. That is what this is. It's far more entertaining to read than something saying "The Humour are quite clearly a band with potential, but perhaps they could do x, y and z. But then it's not really my cup of tea". Yawn. So yeah, I like this review.

On 22nd April 2006 at 22:37 Anonymous 2871 wrote...

Oops, for some reason, I thought this review was the work of Rick Garnett (hence my calling him "Ric" at some point), it's not, it's by Danny Martin.
It's still good though, says I.

On 23rd April 2006 at 15:30 Anonymous 3193 wrote...

Agreed.

On 26th April 2006 at 01:14 Anonymous 5048 wrote...

I thought 'The Echo' were very pleasant indeed, got me swaying on down a treat. 'The Humour' were very entertaining and have got some belting tracks that could easily grace venues all over t'shop. 'The Xenith Sound' rocked out as usual and I'm suprised there weren't more of their fans there relaying it back to them onstage! All in all it was an awesome gig! Only downside was those two toss-pots who succeeded in acting like nobs and getting kicked out. Well done lads! Also, I'd like to congratulate 'The Humour' on winning the 'Northern Trax' competition earlier this week. Not bad for a band with severely limited talent! Good luck in the Nationals lads!