Live Review: NME Radar tour with Darwin Deez, Everything Everything and Hurts
NME Radar tours always have a lineup of amazing bands –La Roux, Friendly Fires and Marina and the Diamonds have all traipsed around the country plying their trade in their formative days. This month, Hurts, Everything Everything and Darwin Deez are joining together in one happy (but rather mismatched) musical family to head up 2010’s NME Radar tour, which I caught at Bristol’s Thekla tonight.
As I arrived, Bristol’s very own Out Like A Lion were finishing off their set to a rather tepid response and awkward banter (“well, this, is, erm, nice…”). As they exited the stage the boat began to fill up with a throng of Darwin Deez Obsessives. After listening to his debut album, I kinda liked him, but wasn’t a huge fan. The live Darwin Deeez experience however pisses all over the album. Exuberant, crazy and a lot of fun barely covers it. On paper, it shouldn’t have worked on an NME tour: dance routines to Bart Simpson’s Do The Bartman, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and Miike Snow’s Animal? Having a “shared” band apple that they all took turns to eat out of? Errrrrrr?! Well, honestly nothing I write will be able to persuade you of the fun we had, the exuberance and entertainment Darwin Deeez offered. Make sure you see them live if you get a chance – utterly enthralling, really quite good.
From them to Everything Everything was quite a jump – We named Everything Everything one of our 10 for 2010, as a great rising talent. Sure, they’ve got some tunes, but live they lacked the sheer fun of Darwin Deez and didn’t manage to thrill the crowd as much.
Finally, time for Hurts. I was sceptical of them headlining the tour after only playing two UK shows and a handful of YouTube videos. However, in all honesty they completely ruled the show. None of the boyish “we’ll-do-what-the-hell-we-like-‘cos-we’re-having-fun” of Deez, they were incredibly aloof and self confident for a band with not much in the way of released material to their name. However, after the opening duo of “Silver Lining” and “Wonderful Life” (incidentally a song written all about Bristol, and the only song that inspired a pre-song introduction), there was no doubting that Hurts are the real deal. 80’s synths ahoy, they’re never going to win prizes for “most entertaining” band or suchlike, but they do have some amazing pop tunes that I wouldn’t be surprised if they overtake our airwaves this autumn. By the end of their set any qualms I had about them headlining this early in their career were firmly quashed.
Above: Darwin Deez
Above: Everything Everything
Above: Hurts
One Response
24th June 2010
[…] am Ahh, Darwin Deez. The guy I thought I wouldn’t like and then fell a tiny bit in love with on the NME tour. He’s one of the most likeable guys in the 2010 crop of “buzz bands” and this […]