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The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
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Gig Review

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names / Fanfarlo / One More Grain
London, Madame Jojo's

Article written by Paul M - May 17, 2007

Madame Jojo�s is a cabaret bar in the sleazy heart of London�s Soho and one of the Smoke�s finer small venues. Cheap swillie, multi-levelled viewing areas so even our vertically challenged chums can get a peep at more than just their lanky neighbour�s arses and, lawks, it even has a sound system that doesn�t add a layer of klanking sonic mud to the listening experience. Now there�s a novelty.

Best of all the spiffing promoters White Heat have cobbled together a pretty appetising bill. I only catch the end of openers, the wonky popsters One More Grain, a band whose frontman borrows the whiney intonations of Mark E Smith. Not bad but get your own voice. The main support Fanfarlo are even more light fingered; they steal the show. This is not some furtive filch but a blatent blag involving a Cortina racing off with tenners tumbling out the boot and horns blaring. Well not literally though there were plenty of blaring horns. A London based sextet with a Swedish frontman, they have been namedropped by a Mr David Bowie no less. Here, live, they deliver on the promise of their wonderfully lush singles with a gorgeous and all too brief set of melancholic pop. Imagine the twee folk of Belle and Sebastian, the panoramic orchestration of Arcade Fire and the quirky lilt of the Shins blended and you�ve got some idea of just how special this band were and are. Utterly awesome.

Following that would be beyond most bands. It�s certainly beyond the bonkers named Suburban Kids with Biblical Names. I�d seen these Swedes before in the confines of South London�s buffed little jewel The Windmill and very much enjoyed their jaunty lo-fi keyboard pop. Tonight they�re not on fire. Unfortunately, however, their kit is. Black smoke pours out of a stage monitor and we�re gagging. This is not nice. Then some little technical gubbins resting on a seat starts playing up forcing them to stop a song early. Shambolic. The songs they do complete don�t sound particularly good either. What�s gone wrong? Can we not bring Fanfarlo back on? Apparently not. A particularly moist squib of an end then.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/fanfarlo