aaamusic | On 30, Sep 2010

London, 17th September

It’s been 10 years since a 15-year-old Toby L started Rock Feedback in his bedroom. Since the turn of the millennium it has grown to encompass a televisions series, a live promotions company and Transgressive records.

Tonight sees a celebration this bastion of independent music celebrated in true style, with the volatile Welsh rockers and ex-McLusky members Future of The Left, really kicking things off upstairs. Soft guitar strings roll forth before Andy ‘Falco’ Falkous’s vocals come screeching down for ‘Arming Eritrea’, as the three moshers at the front gradually infect everyone around them. By the time the band launch into their famous ‘Manchasm’ about Colin the pussy…cat the entire floor is swirling in a mass of crunching guitars, ruptured basslines and pounding drums.

As the feedback howls to a finish I find myself torn, do I fight the bustling crowds to make it to Anna Calvi downstairs or do I stick it out and get myself a good vantage point for the legendary British Sea Power.

As ‘Remember Me’ rings out over a packed crowd I am certain I have made the correct choice to stay on for British Sea Power as they ride a wave of nostalgia stirred up by this 2003 track. Playing through a raucous and blistering set of retrograde pop rock numbers, British Sea Power prove they are still a band to be reckoned with. Though arguably less adventurous than young Calvi, the group have ploughed on through an over saturated genre to emerge triumphant: Even if it is only due to their own sheer tenacity.

Replacing their usual foliage decorations with an endless supply of beer which they shared with the audience, the band played through an epic set of sweeping sonics punctuated lyrical intricacies with blusterous recent material accompanied by the ferocity of the classics such as ‘Favours In The Beetroot Fields.’

Three Trapped Tigers are up next and their stop start melodies are so infectious and rhythmically off-kilter that try as you might you can’t even bop your head along.

After milling around for a while listening to DJ sets from Goldierocks, Rough Trade Shops and Eat Your Own Ears it is time for tonight’s special guests Pulled Apart By Horses, who, by the time it comes to 1:00am are just as ridiculously smashed as the crowd. Taking to the stage to slightly muted screams the Leeds based four-piece, one dressed as a Lion, eventually get the crowd moving to the contagious, angular riffs of ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ and the frenzied delirium of ‘E=MC Hammer’.

As the sweat settles revellers slowly begin to file out of the Electrowerks and everyone seems in full agreement that Rock Feedback’s 10^th Birthday celebrations did no less than utterly rock.

Author: Lauren Down