Boy Kill Boy
Cambridge Soul Tree, NOvember 2005
It's always nice when a band strut around the place with
"the next big thing" tag strapped to their backs like a dirty
great big neon "kick me"
sign. So it was with great glee that I pootled off to The Soul Tree
to see if Boy Kills Boy would be the latest no-hopers to fall on their
collective
swords.
The night started promisingly. While the venue is probably the nicest
space in Cambridge, it was freezing cold and as the first support band
came on there was harldy anyone there - all set up for a comically disastrous
evening. I don't know which of the support bands was which, but frankly
it doesn't matter. Both played uninspiring sets that were forgotten
long before I left for home, and while there were plenty of good musicians
on stage, no one had a bean of originality or spark of genius. Pleasing
enough to the ear, but plod plod plod.
And then came Boy Kill Boy. Wandering onto the stage looking like a
cross between The Ramones and The Bay City Rollers, they treated a half
empty
room like it was Wembley Stadium (God rest its soul). Why doesn't every
band do this? The attitude from many so-called enrtertainers to a low
turn out is insulting - and stupid. There might be just one man and
his dog in the crowd, but what if the one man is the next Alan McGee
or Tony Wilson (and who knows - the dog might be the next Littlest Hobo)?
But I digress. Its no wonder that NME like this lot - the former inkie
have been on a bit of a run recently, with the bands from this year's
NME tour - especially Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs - becoming stars
after being championed in their pages. So it was no real surprise that
Boy Kills Boy had a fat dollop of both in their fun and energetic armoury,
plus a bit of Supergrass' playfulness. With a singer that looks like
the mental mulleted one out of the Police Academy films and a bass player
who did a demented version of the Shadows walk for the entire evening,
they did something so many others forget - they entertained. And the
songs were well-crafted pop
nougats too.
So my hopes of writing oodles of invective about NME just building them
up to knock them down, or bigging up bands who they drink with, or because
they're sleeping with their PR bird, were blown out of the water. For
now.
But I'll be back.
Damn you Boy Kill Boy - damn you to hell. But come back soon.
Chris Marling
Pic Carina Jirsch
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