Post by neilcrud on Sept 26, 2008 21:27:08 GMT
FAKE CITY LIGHTS
PURE BEARS
DANIEL & SARAH JOHNSON
Zu Bar, Rhyl 24.09.08
PURE BEARS
DANIEL & SARAH JOHNSON
Zu Bar, Rhyl 24.09.08
(review n pix by neil crud)
'It's reality check time,' said a bemused Steve Rastin when Sync and myself walked into an almost empty venue at 9.45pm. All the students have now gone back to their respective places of higher education to get higher no doubt. Zu Bar was also suspiciously void of our main draw of the evening - the inspired Valleum.
To make up the numbers, the sibling okey-dokey-pig-in-a-karaoke acoustic duo of Daniel and Sarah Johnson set things off and the people started venturing in. Maybe it's trendy in Rhyl to turn up late these days, as they just kept coming in.
Next up were Rhyl's Pure Bears making their debut appearance with probably the crappest name I've ever heard for a band, but don't let that fool you - they were shambolic, out of tune, the bassist needs to keep in time and yet they were fuckin' ace at the same time. It was nothing new and they won't break any records, but it was refreshing to see, and perhaps if they took themselves too seriously they'd be shite.
After dedicating a song to Jimmy, who they said 'is a doorman at Ellis's who's a fucking wanker' they trashed into their next haphazardous number. An intense bout of rehearsals to tighten things up wouldn't go amiss, and you could be watching Rhyl's next big thing. In frontman Calvin, Pure Bears have a cocky fucker, similar to the young Remo of Der Bomber when they first started, and like then, you thought, 'Who's this cheeky little cunt?' But he's quick enough to ask those jigglers at the front to 'carry on dancing cos it makes us look popular' after they'd strutted their stuff to a version of Blitzkrieg Bop. Honesty is usually the best policy...
The music? It's a trashed out ode to the mid-70s MC5, Dictators. Stooges style punk, how much of it was original and how many covers they did, who knows and who cares? All I know is that they work in Lo-Cost and their Dad picked them up after the show - now that's punk rock! www.myspace.com/purebears
Coming a close second in the shite band name stakes are Bangor's Fake City Lights, and like those before them, judging books by their names did not guarantee a good read, although judging them by their covers is perhaps closer as the trackie top zipped up to the chin gave the game away when the keyboarding vocalist Stuart Jones took to his instrument looking like a scruffy cunted Shaun Ryder (although the words cunted and Shaun Ryder do go hand in hand). And yes, there is a baggy feel to FCL's music, in a kind of Tetra Splendourish way. The tumultuous progged out opening of epic proportions climaxed at the end and no one clapped! But that's Rhyl – too afraid to take their hands out of their pockets in case someone picks them!
Inspired by the Inspiral would be the obvious comparison with the heavy reliance on keyboards; but that's as far as it would go. It's like throwing the Mondays, Carpets, Roses and Tetras in a blender then drinking it all with some hash cakes, and maybe you get the vibe. Yeah it was good stuff.
www.myspace.com/fakecitylights77