Les Incompetents are a rag-tag bunch of indie non-descripts who specialise in..erm, non-descript indie, dual singers + enough enthusiasm to power the dynamo at the national grid - songs about Kris Akabusi, Cheryl Baker & the Record Breakers crew = A beautiful mess... Somewhat unlike Neil’s Children who are tighter live than a rubber band wrapped around a skyscraper. Their blatant disregard for normal time schemes & melody leads to this writer becoming slightly disorientated, completely losing his ice-cool composure & bobbing like a maniac. I have to admit NC’s CD offerings never inspired me all that much, grating to the point of annoyance..but in the live arena they are in their element. A frankly astounding cover of PiL’s ‘Poptones’ thrown in for good measure after a menacing outing for old single ‘I Hate Models’ at the tail end of the set rounds things off very agreeably. On the inverse, Black Wire are, for want of a better word..crap. Tunes like ‘Attack! Attack! Attack!’ which led to hysteria when first aired at home fizzle out live. Perhaps a smaller venue would suit their paranoid jams a little better? But here all they remind me of are a very poor man’s Kasabian..an insult I would not usually want to level at anyone. Perhaps invest in a real drummer boys? Maybe a choreographer while you’re at it? Just a suggestion..

80’s Matchbox B-line Disaster, as my friend Peter once pointed out never disappoint live, & I’m finally beginning to agree with him. Although EXACTLY THE SAME as their set early on at the Camden Crawl (if it ‘taint broken, don’t fix it I say) 80’s Matchbox absolutely slaughter it live. Malevolent creations such as ‘Celebrate Your Mother’ & ‘Mister Mental’ rumble on like Thor himself, while the slightly unhinged Guy McKnight pretends to hang himself with his neckerchief at random intervals during the set. My only beef being the sad omission of modern classics ‘Psychosis Safari’ and ‘I Could Be An Angle’, but this is only a minor wave in a sea of ecstatic pleasure..If you close your eyes, it’s almost like being back at the Crawl a week before. Now where’s that Tramydol?

Review by James Williams
www.eightiesmatchbox.com
www.blackwire.tk
www.neilschildren.co.uk
www.lesincompetents.co.uk

Bloody hell! What a great line up! Discuss on the Messageboard