The crowd was very sparse for The Cherubs but more people started to float in from outside and put down their pints of Tennent’s for a minute, but not so long that the under-agers could swipe them, to enjoy the frantic art rock that the band were pumping out from the stage. The Norwegians made quite a hefty impact with new single, “Club Hula Hoop’s Walls”, going down especially well. They played with the intensity of Bloc Party, the speed of The Futureheads and the art chique style of The Rakes to make what was really quite an impressively loud but melodic noise.

Then it was the turn of The Cribs to wow the crowd. There was a hardcore section of the audience who seemed to know every word to every song, even the new ones, which made the band seem more like headliners than a support act. This seems set to be there year as they are whoring themselves out as support group to anyone who wants them, so it would seem, and their second album looks set to receive much more recognition than the first. You don’t get much crazier when it comes to onstage antics than you get with The Cribs. With Ross playing his drums standing on his stool, Gary drinking and high kicking himself into oblivion and Ryan running across the monitors, stage diving and knocking into everything, they are quite a sight to behold. But, thankfully, this doesn’t distract from the music. “Another Number” is one of the most under rated songs of recent years and “Things You Should Be Knowing”, with its rolling drums and hefty bass line is a brilliant piece of song writing. They are a band who deserve to be so much bigger than the level on which they currently stand. Sheer brilliance.

When Dominic Masters walks onto a stage in front of a mass of his loyal 853 crew, it’s quite a beautiful and bizarre sight. People reach out to touch their hero and try to grab his attention in the vain hope that they might get just one glance from the man they see not only as a musician, but their friend. An Others’ gig is never really about the music. It’s about shouting along to “This is For The Poor” with hundreds of other people. It’s about having Dom climbing the barrier and singing “Stan Bowles” right in your face. It’s about the breaking down of that imaginary fourth wall between stage and audience and everyone in the room, apart from the bastarding security guards who don’t let anyone on stage for the mandatory “This if For the Poor” stage invasion, acting as one, letting themselves go and reaching an almost out of body, high, not drug (well maybe in some cases), induced state of euphoria. The Others might not have the best singer in the world and they might not sound amazingly original, but what they present in their live shows is what makes them stand out from the crowd. We could talk about the bubbling punk sing along of “Almanac” or the tragedy tinged “William” but we don’t want to. Whatever preconceptions you have about The Others’ music or their attiude, forget about them and go and see the band live. You will be converted, and if you aren’t, Joyzine will be giving out refunds (Financial Ed – We won’t, but you get the picture.)

Review by Jason Edwards
www.letskilltheothers.com
www.thecribs.com
www.cherubs-hq.com

The Others - Working class heroes or self serving frauds who got famous off the back of The Libertines? Talk on the Messageboard