It's all just about to get a little bit Nasty. The great thing about dubbing yourself a 'festival of nu-wave' is that you pretty much have the leeway to put anything you want on the bill and slam the indiscriminate tag of 'nu-wave' atop and no-one will bat an eyelid. The one constant factor throughout the festival's 6-strong legacy has always been its unrelenting reliance on new artists or at the very most the ones scraping the mainstream. Often descending more into the anarchy of a cracking atmosphere rather than a bill boasting bands you'd pay good money to see, but nevertheless the bands continue to remain the primary focus of the festivities and Nasty Fest 6 doesn't disappoint.
There was no way Example could have disappointed as many people in attendance had seemingly never come across him before. But in actuality Example turns out to be one of the surprise highlights of the night. One of the new breed of white rappers with drum & bass, the Fulham based artist mostly unravels tails of girls he's slept with in pretty much the minutest detail ("I've got to get home in time to watch Football Focus" being a particularly favourite), but also delving into songs about the environment and his strongest song revolving around the trials and tribulations of being a white rapper from Fulham. Example really has his act together when it come to the songs even if his pleas for audience participation ultimately fall on deaf ears. [8/10]
Yes Boss on the other hand seem to have become a bit stale all of a sudden. After witnessing one of their most proficient sets to date supporting ¡Forward, Russia! on the pre-Leeds Festival Cockpit spectacular, tonight the two grim faced adopted Leeds-ites seem a little laboured on stage and even appear tired of their own songs as the continuous re-jigging of 'Meet The Boss' hints towards. Many of the newer songs lack the bite of their older counterparts and all in all you feel that time has past them by somewhat. A glass ceiling has been hit, but if anyone was to break through that, you feel it would be Yes Boss. [5/10]
The sounds of a packed out Red Lounge and the whimsical noises of Sky Larkin are forbore to pick out a prime position for the magnificent Pull Tiger Tail next. If any band on tonight's bill, or arguably any Nasty Fest bill, was to be elevated to the tunes of 'next big thing' it would be this photogenic threesome. The best way to describe them would be to say they sound like an irresistibly sweet crossover between jittery indie heavyweights We Are Scientists and Bloc Party. They have the songs, they've got the hooks, they've basically got the whole package when it comes to a recipe for pure pop perfection. Tracks of the calibre of 'Animator' just beg for airplay and when they occasionally show their teeth on the more vitriolic moments and the vocals reach surprisingly high tuneful frequencies you know Pull Tiger Tail are definitely a band to be reckoned with. Once the voltage is raised and the audiences are larger, PTT will really come into their own but until then they'll just have to stew in their crown princes of indie billing. [9/10]
And so we move to the time of the night where the Nasty Fest crowd just go a little bit mental. Initiated by SYEAYBIF last year, this year the mighty Hadouken! take the gold medal for carnage and the Faversham security once again show how utterly mindless they can be. You'd hesitate to call Hadouken! frontman a singer, you'd also be reluctant to class him as a rapper but as ("nasty") samples flitter and near grime style drum n bass batter the lobes, Hadouken! don't half know how to make a racket. Tunes of the calibre of 'Dance Lesson', 'Tuning In' and 'That Boy. That Girl' sound superb at close vicinity and as crowd surfers sail overhead and, via straight up vicious security drones, out of the back door the question again crops up as to how they forgot to tell anyone it's flat-out not allowed. Sort it out Fav. It's not Hadouken!'s fault they're that good. [8/10]
A brief foray next door unveils Manchester's The Whip and their restrictive electro. Opener 'Trash' is as good as anything Soulwax can produce at their best. Brilliant euphoric dance at its finest but unfortunately, despite being above your average electronic fare, The Whips output eventually melds onto one long chain of bleughhh. [6/10]
As the quasi-scousetinged yodelling of "Welcome to the Hot Club De Paris" rings around the main room it could only mean one thing. Everyone's favourite jazz fret indie noiseniks have started their world record attempt to fit at least 40 songs into 30 minutes. Before you know one song's finished, another has started. Slotting together like an elaborate jigsaw that ultimately has a piece missing. First track 'Sometimesitsbetter...' is the best case of when they get it right but too often than not the songs aren't quite developed enough. A very fun band though. [7/10]
Dartz! are fun as well. Dartz! are good too. As one of their song titles hints at. An eerily undernourished Red Lounge greets the headliners with a rousing reception throughout. More a sense of undoubted appreciation of a good solid guitar band plying their wares than anything ground breaking, but nevertheless it's a set that contains a good proportion of hits compared to misses. A new heavier edge seems to be existence on plenty of the newer songs while older numbers sound a tad more tame or are completely nullified from the set list. Which is a shame as despite a lack of an album, Dartz! have a formidable arsenal to play with. Set closer 'Dartz! Is Good', just about sums it up. [8/10]
And so if this is the final straight, The Longcut are the hurdle. A farking nightmare to get over but ultimately rewarding, The Longcut are by no means the perfect headliners for an event such as this but their intensely dark, well matured, indie soundscapes bring the night to a close in a shroud of pitch black grooveage. The Longcut often descend into the realms of tedium but when they do get it right, they really get it right. Bringing the show and night to a close with the spectacular 'A Quiet Life', all is forgiven but as for headlining this Nasty Fest it was a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole. [7/10]
So the line-up may not have been as good as days gone by, but who cares, it's Nasty Fest and long may it continue.
Gig Date: Saturday, 18th November 2006 | 839 page views.
