SAWDVST CAESARS, Pleasure Unit
Meg Edwards - 02/06/2005
London, 30 May - Lady Fortune, Dakar Rally, Rosemary, Von Smedley and Dustin Bar Mitzah
Lady Fortune:
Five tables, each with five, rather coy looking people sat around them; I've never really envied the first band to take the stage of any event consisting
of more than four acts, but Lady Fortune may have taken this poison challis and use it to their success. Although they began Burberry and Mac clad, looking apprehensive stiff, the clean looking, raw four piece soon settled to the stage providing the few early venue birds with something to nod and smile towards. Pocket and
Miss fortune let rip to lift an opportunity to move and otherwise quiet venue and soon the Macs were thrown to the side of the raised platform stage as the venue began to fill and cheer with acceptance.
Dakar Rally:
Aptly sharing their name with a bizarre off road rally challenge that takes place in Paris, the opening song to their set crashed onto the stage with as much force as a rally car colliding with a mound of Dunlop tires. There was defiantly something dark but playful about Dakar's performance with Dakar rally have fun in Hull giving an instant feeling of pride in the band. Each of the bands members appeared relaxed, The jackets comes off! We are cool but oh so hot! Proclaims front man, Kev Sewell and from this point on these words echoed a reflection of the sets progression, climaxing with one final song which left the, now slightly fuller room, cheering and gasping and some frantic dancing takes place mid venue.
Rosemary:
These days, with the rise of so many bands influenced by the madness and mayhem of the heroes of indie rock and roll, very few bands actually produce a sound which you haven't heard someone, in some pub, somewhere try to reproduce. With a folk 'ish' rock element, Rosemary gave us something to believe in; Not all bands are addicted to creating something new that sounds like everyone else. They are fresh as freshly cut grass and a powerful as the blade on the lawn mower that cut it. There's a matureness about them that allows them to cover songs by Peter, Paul and Mary (Kisses sweeter than wine) and leave a crowd feeling more than content with the sound produced. In fact, I liked Rosmary, I even joined in with the ever growing crowd of frantic dancers at the front. The set, the style and the general performance, left you with a hope that the Britain still has a reason to be proud of its music scene.
Von Smedley:
It gets better. 'I'm busting for the toilet, can I go in front of you? Oh go on, I'm in the next band!' Standing in the ever growing 'Ladies loo queue' in between acts I meet one of the two incredibly turned out women that front Von Smedley. There's something honest, something fun and something raw about them. It was one of 'those' sets that made you remember how fun it was to listen to ska and punk at school while everyone else was tottering around on spice girls wedges. If the dancing mid venue wasn't crazy enough before, try this for a formula; Crazed 'scenesters'+ska =Skaning! The snappy, manic set made the crowd roar with teenage pleasure as screaming and bass trashing produced delights such as an opening rendition of 'east west', the punk, pumping Dear Deirdre and to finish off Bruise violet. The kind of music you would have tried to get on cassette tape to listen to on the bus to school.
Dustins Bar Mitzah:
Four men take the stage for the final show down and the first song of the set proves they have been ready for quite sometime. An interestingly named band spits out an interesting set, but as the name would suggest, there's a huge party going on, but ultimately something's just been taken away (Sorry Dustin). Things fly about the venue a bit and the mood turns slightly riot like as Get your f**king mood on escalates. They are defiantly showing influences of the libertines in there, but then, who doesn't? Just two months and one day prior to this glorious evening, these gentlemen released a double Aside ,Lucy/Jimmy White. Does anyone know how it did? Me neither.
But the point remains, judging by this set, they and there performance of their Aside track Lucy, Dustin's bar mitzvah do deserve to be heard and the kids out there deserver to hear them too.
photos: Malcolm Walker- Arnott & Ally Gillespie
more photos @: www.mckipper.co.uk
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