The Café de Paris is literally a venue from another age. It has been open since the 1920’s and still maintains the illusion of opulence through numerous liveried staff, who look like the crew of an ocean liner. It pretends to be exclusive, but has a free showcase of bands early on Friday evenings.
I’ve been a fan of Los Angeles pop-punks Killola since happening across them on the internet a year or so ago. So I’m very happy to be here at their first UK appearance.
They don’t disappoint one bit. Singer Lisa Rieffel is quite an extraordinary performer, even if her voice takes a little bit of getting used to. It is a perfect helium-pitched squeak. If it were any higher, you wouldn’t be able to hear it at all. Stamping barefoot around the stage, she’s a dynamo – though with her blonde hair flapping in her eyes, she can barely see. After each song she looks around in triumph, pausing only to gather her breath and to wind up for the next onslaught.
The songs themselves fairly rip along, and are well received, particularly a new version of first album favourite “Barrel of Donkeys”. The stage is sufficiently low that it enables Rieffel to step down and interact with the crowd, who love every minute of it. At one point the band charge through a version of Ween’s “Doctor Rock” and I take this as my cue to leap into the throng, and bounce about like a loon.
Killola play fast and furious and leave you grinning, sweating and enthralled in equal measure. It ain’t big or clever, but if I liked them before, now I love them lots.
Other bands this evening have fared less well. The first lot have the worst name that I think that I have ever come across, choosing to saddle themselves with the tag The Bootleg Lilos. In mitigation, they are extremely young and look as if they have just bunked off school for the afternoon. They play pleasant, if rather routine indie rock, but may develop into something more interesting further down the line.
In contrast, The Straights from Manchester are as slick and hard as a piece of wet granite. And if they stick very firmly to the early Oasis/Arctic Monkeys template, this does not mean that they are not very impressive at what they do, or that they deserve to have a great deal more attention paid to them than is afforded by a disinterested crowd this evening. What makes them stand out from a host of other bands covering similar territory is the edge of real spite and ferocity that they generate. They give the impression that they don’t mind if they are not liked. They are worth keeping an eye on – they could be all over everywhere this time next year.
After Killola leave everyone breathless, the headliners The Servant can’t help but to disappoint. They are apparently ‘big in Italy’ and they do indeed sound like the kind of band that is huge on the continent but which the British tend to dismiss as rather arch and earnest. That they are successful elsewhere is more power to their elbow, but they seem very lightweight tonight.
A grand evening in a grandiose setting. I think that more venues should have flunkies and cigarette girls.
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