Bop Section
Live at Packhorse on Tuesday, 10th April 2001
I was really excited to see this gig, cos we've all heard so much about Mozo, The Real Fucky Fucky sound crazy, and the preview of bop section in cops and robbers sounds really cool. The first thing that struck me about the gig, though, was that the PA was a bit small and seemingly not great quality. The bands had been fiddling about with it trying to put some music through it and this wasn't at all encouraging. This proved more obvious when MOZO took the stage, as the vocals were a bit quiet and muffled. I'll put my opinion on my sleeve now, however, and say I thought they were fantastic regardless of this. There were tell-tell signs that the band had not played live together too much, but they loosened up a lot as the set progressed. Musically, I'd heard them struggle to describe themselves as "kinda rock, maybe funk". There real sound was pretty similar to this and although this maybe a curse upon them, mainly due to the guitarists sound, I'd compare them to the Stone Roses, though not as bollocksy. Straight songs, kinda indie-pop with a hint of funk. Very nice, they just need to work on the stage presence a bit.
This review pretty much centres on Mozo's performance as that's pretty much all I saw. THE REAL FUCKY FUCKY were, as my mate said, "15 minutes of pure class" - they were loud crazy and incomprehensible. As well as being full on hardcore, they also had some ingenious songs, and I thought they were a really good band; it's a shame maybe some would not see past their loud exterior. Basically The Real Fucky Fucky sound like their name, with that extra fucky for the intelligence factor.
It was not long however, before TRFF took their toll on the equipment and during their 4th song (I think) the drum kit finally succumbed. A lot of the crowd lost interest unfortunately in about a 20-minute period it took to resolve the situation and find another bass-drum pedal for the gig to continue. So it was about 10.20 by the time BOP SECTION took the stage, but they were well worth the wait. It was a shame a band of this obvious quality played in such a small venue on such a night with such confusion before them. Their sound was kinda like Mogwai, an obvious comparison, but I thought that Bop Section were generally a loud band interspersed with quieter bits while Mogwai are the reverse. Anyway, I couldn't stay long as I had to run to the bus station, but I did have a brilliant evening and loved all 3 bands!! (sounds cheesy, but hey, life's like that!!)