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Gig Review

Guards / Young Buffalo / History of Apple Pie
London, Lexington

Article written by Paul M - Feb 21, 2011

Another day, another night out in Islington. This of course has to commence with visits to the area’s two remaining record shops, on the Essex Road. Firstly, the magnificent Flashback and secondly Haggle, a shop where even the most polite request is greeted with abject ridicule. Both emporiums feature in the current Yell advert that updates the JR Hartley book request with one for Day V Lately and his bloody long lost record. Both use actors as staff in the TV versions – Yell presumably figuring that the sales assistant shouting “Idiot!” at a departing customer doesn’t make for a good sales pitch (this actually happened in Haggle tonight as a young dance DJ tried to explain the breakbeat genre to the grumpy old hippy owner). Good humour returns though over a few ales in the wonderful Red Lion Theatre Bar and as the hordes of Arsenal fans descend for their match v Barcelona we depart for the Lex, comfortably now London’s premier small-ish venue.

First up are History of Apple Pie, a London outfit, who are not quite as twee as their name might first suggest. Fuzzy but not too grungey guitars puts them at the more droney end of indie pop, and though we appreciate their early 90s shoegazing charms for a while, the lack of variety in the female vocals mean it becomes a tad too downbeat to enjoy over a full set. However they are so incredibly young that most people assume the Steve Jobs and Richard Curtis lookalikes dancing manically at the front must be their middle aged dads. Indeed the band are obliged, at his insistence, to humour ‘Jobs’ with high fives at the end, and the two drunken buffoons stick around to bemuse the two American bands who follow, long after the kids in History of Apple Pie have departed, presumably to finish off their homework with crayons.

Young Buffalo divide our party. Some hear their afrobeats, skittish drumming and whooping harmonies and dismiss them as yet another bunch of Vampire Weekend wannabes. Others hear their afrobeats, skittish drumming and whooping harmonies and celebrate them as, er, yet another bunch of Vampire Weekend wannabes… Anyway, their sunkissed pop is still highly enjoyable, although swapping instruments to allow the chubby drummer a go at guitar and vocals is probably a mistake, as his voice is less impressive on lead duties and his moobs best hidden by hi-hats. Interspersed with the occasional “y’all” to add authenticity to their Missouri roots, they leave the stage to hearty applause from some of us, ‘Jobs’ and ‘Curtis’...

Guards are now a full band, but still just one of a number of projects for the multi-tasking New Yorker, founder Richie Follin, a man who’s clearly a mover and shaker on the Brooklyn scene, as members of Cults (sister Madeline), Chairlift and MGMT guested on the act’s excellent debut EP. They have never played a European date before. In fact it’s probably fair to say they’ve not played many dates before, period, as their set is still scarcely much longer than the seven tracks from the previously mentioned release. Follin uses echo effects for his vocals, which in an intimate venue like this doesn’t work as well as it might in a larger one, as you are close enough to hear his natural voice a split second before the echoed version booms out. It’s even more disconcerting for ‘tween track banter as he doesn’t turn the device off. Still, these are all but quibbles because the set is an enjoyable half hour romp through soaring church organ / electronic harp led pop rock and Don’t Wake the Dead is an infectious breakneck paced stomping classic. Oh and the twitchers amongst us get to look at four stuffed examples of the family corvidae scattered around the stage but we leave before ‘Jobs’ and ‘Curtis’ decide to mount the stage and dry hump the crows…

Links:
http://guards.bandcamp.com