16 April 2007 (gig)
16 April 2007
Ok so here’s the scenario five guys, two girls all in matching thunderbird style hats and jackets complete with the individuals Jnr initials on show, the lead singer and mastermind behind all this is Eugene Francis Junior sporting an apache style head dress and Captain America shield to boot !! Now you can forgive me for thinking gimmicky straight away but I was yet to hear the sound these life like Gerry Andersons were to produce.
The first track was good enough and it perfectly put you in the mood for things to come gentle guitar and harmonies overlapping layers of instruments and dash of electronics for good measure giving you a warm rising feeling. Next up was the new single Poor Me which was absolutely brilliant starting with some light keyboard then the plucking of some beautiful guitar , the sound slowly building up with vocals and the tinkering of bells then it’s all off. This is the perfect track for the summer you can just imagine lots of happy festival goers bopping around barefoot with glasses of Pims grinning away.
The rest of the set continued like this with great crowd interaction including throwing out little egg shakers to all, who then in turn shook along in time with the band. Other stand out tracks were Kite and Hobo Occupation which was stomping with the main man EFJ himself doing a funky little two step between singing into two microphones. The night was full of smiles and happy faces finishing with a fantastic track possibly called Pollution, I’m not sure, but it went down a storm.
Hinting of the likes of early ambient Orb or Aphex Twin mixed with country folk and the lyrics of say someone as great as Dylan. EFJ has dubbed the sound as being 'Folktronica' I can’t say I’m a fan of the word but it does sum them up perfectly.
Hopefully this band will be doing the festival circuits this year as I’d love to see them again and can’t recommend them enough, fingers crossed Poor Me will be for this summer like Peter Bjorn and Johns ' Young Folks was for last, they definitely deserve it and I wish them every success.
