New To Q Sessions - Day 1, The Cheek, White Rabbits and Delphic
The Tabernacle was filling up nicely as The Cheek came on-stage. Rattling through a set of brooding guitar pop that hints at the glossy whilst refusing to go there and runs the gamut from toying with arty to more workman-like indie guitar riffs. For those seeking something more specific than the "popular music 1955 - 2009" reference on their MySpace you could imagine them enjoying Suede. What Goes On? drew a good response from the audience as did past single Hung Up.
Six-piece Brooklynites White Rabbits followed, seeming somewhat older than the excessively youthful looking The Cheek, but if that means they've had longer to get to know their instruments it showed in their musicality. Their set was filled with syncopated drumming, vocal duties swapping between keyboard player Stephen Patterson and guitarist Gregory Roberts.
Songs that started as straightforward pop-rock quickly changed and developed their own new turns and rhythms featuring intricate extended middle eights and breakdowns that had the audience rapt. Minimalist repeated guitar fills that niggled their way into the conscious seemed at times reminiscent of Radiohead. Percussion Gun perhaps best captured their sound on the night and as the band left the stage to a looped intro clip to Yorke and co.'s Idioteque from the sound desk it all felt a very natural fit with their own sound.
Much anticipated headliners Delphic appeared in a flash of strobes that caught a couple of audience members so off guard they put their sunglasses on. Doubt was instantly recognisable, highlighting why this band have been on many people's Faces of 2010 lists, including Q's very own. Picking up where Bloc Party have left off vocally, sure to be one of this summer's dancefloor anthems with it's remix and sampler friendly breaks, chiming U2/Coldplay style (depending who you heard do it first) guitar and propelling bass beats which coupled with their Mancunian roots seems destined to see them compared with New Order by all in sundry (no bad thing really, if probably not quite as close as the Bloc Party reference). Over thecourse of their set they effectively turned the venue from a gig into a dance-floor, Red Lights perhaps providing the euphoric peak in a wave of Cafe Del Mar friendly moments. Counterpoint guided the set home with the vocal refrain of "Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong - today" building and building earnestly till it broke over a wash of warm synth and the curfew imposed come-down.
10:02 AM | 28/01/2010
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