The Sheffield Scenester

Due to the fact that Mika had sold out the O2 Academy down the road and The Crucible Theatre was having its grand re-opening on this night, it was no surprise to see The Plug relatively deserted when I arrived. Undaunted I turned up just in time to see the opening act, Wakefield’s very own Ran Tan Waltz.

The drums kicked in with a steady military beat before being joined by some light guitar, Sean’s warbled vocals on ‘Reputations In Ruins’ almost give it a haunted quality. The set soon gained momentum with their modern take on the punk politics of the seventies, burning through self penned classics such as ‘Crossfire Tripartite’ – which was dedicated to all the Polish people – and ‘Beat Generation’ both off the new EP. With the song, ‘The Dogs Of Dewsbury’, Sean kindly pointed out that this was about a town called Dewsbury as to the dogs of the title well I’ll leave that for now...but it was carried along brilliantly with a great bass riff. For a band that obviously takes themselves and their music seriously it was rather a pleasant surprise when they did a cover of the Talking Heads classic ‘Psycho Killer’, a song which perfectly suited Sean’s voice, making this a great rendition. The final track ‘England Isn’t Mine’ is my favourite track on the EP and tonight’s performance didn’t diminish its power, so despite the lack of audience they still put together an enthusiastic set.

By now a few more people had drifted in to see the second act of the night; London based Banjo Or Freakout, I’m not sure whether to describe them as a group or as an experiment in computer generated music, consisting as they are of a front man on keyboards, guitar and drum, leaving his partner on drums at the back and no bass guitar (White Stripes have a lot to answer for). With a simple “Hello” we were taken straight into their world laden with feedback on the synth bass notes – whether this was intentional or not I’ll never know. Somehow it harks back to the 60’s experimental culture of the Pink Floyd era cascading as it does into a jam session with semi-structured spiralling guitar against a locomotive based drum beat. What really surprised me about the whole thing was that the young audience, traditionally fans of a more conventional brand of music, stood there transfixed on the events unfolding before them. Without doubt the track which really sticks in my head was ‘Drums’ – with very little on stage banter I had to ask the singer afterwards – played as it was with a near monotonous heavy beat and despite the never-ending feel to it I found myself liking it all the same. The final track ‘Dear MP’ – I hope I got that right – had much more of a mainstream angle to it, building as it does into a huge crescendo before cutting itself off into deadly silence. Without doubt an interesting set from a fascinating act and although they seemed at times afraid of their instruments...they still managed to entertain and enthral the crowd.

Finally we came to Californian band The Soft Pack, who are in the middle of a world tour, and even though there wasn’t much more than a hundred people in the room, they all gathered up to the stage to see these guys. The track ‘Pull Out’ opened the set with its Echo And The Bunnymen feel; this was closely followed by ‘Down On Loving’ which hit the ground running in its fast paced execution. Their set looked to be an interesting American take on the indie scene even though the first thing I noticed about them was that they were playing with a standing drum kit, I know I’ve never played drums...but it’s always struck me as a rather uncomfortable proposition using a bass pedal without sitting down, this aside the drummer still managed to belt out a steady beat at the back so can’t complain. The singer (Matt I think his name was) – unfortunately could barely be heard and if I’m honest looked either exhausted or bored throughout, but despite all this the crowd still began dancing so they must of been doing something right. My favourite song of their set by far was ‘Mexico’ with its sliding guitar, no doubt to give you that sweltering desert feel before winding up the set with ‘Answer To Yourself’ another good track. By now Matt had started smiling and actually seemed to enjoy this track...as did the enthusiastic crowd; I have to say it was catchy enough to dance along to.

This evening truly was a musically diverse proposition which at times was both interesting and amusing, despite its sometimes edgy undertones. I’m still not convinced some Americans have enough ‘down trodden grit’ to do ‘grass roots indie’ justice, but they do know a good tune when they hear it, so at the moment....I’m sticking to the home grown variety!

Words/Photos by Geoff Buckthorpe