YUCK @ Hare and Hounds, 24th February 2011
We’ve all had the moments where you go and see a support act you’ve never heard of and not expecting to come out wanting to hear them again, but once in a while you find that needle in the haystack…this is one of those moments.
Fanzine really impressed me with their catchy chorus’ filled with power chords and surf like guitar picks. I got the feeling I was watching the Smashing Pumpkins start out again, but with a modern twist. If you’re into grunge, lo-fi and surf then check these guys out!
Yuck take to the stage in front of the DIY backdrop kicking the set off with the distortion pedal filled Holding Out. This was quickly followed by singer Daniel Blumberg stuttering into ‘The Wall’ which like the majority of the set was at a very high tempo.
Due to a lot of people in the crowd carrying the LP under their arms, a lot of people were very unfamiliar with most of the songs and drummer Jonny Rogoff’s giant bifro!
Yuck were in a very playful mood joking around with the crowd trying to persuade people to buy their album at the merchandise stand and guitarist Max Bloom showing off guitar parts from “Smith Westerns” songs he learnt when touring with them and Yuck in the states.
‘Georgia’ was the only song in the set where I can recall the audience singing along or showing any emotion towards the show. This was clearly the most popular song of the night…and I can defiantly see why. It’s currently the iTunes single of the week, so there’s no excuse to not give it a listen!
The one song from the set where I instantly thought “CAJUN DANCE PARTY” was Get Away; the lead guitar part instantly reminded me of the Amylase guitar solo, which abused so many iPod, plays in my secondary school/sixth form days, this was probably my favourite song of the set.
The band finished on ‘Rubber’ the final song on the album, which is about half the speed of the rest of the set filled to the brim with reverb to give that ‘Shoe-Gaze’ sound. The band leave the stage one by one leaving their amps feeding back. The last to go was singer/guitarist Daniel Blumberg who turns each amp up to 10 pumping the audiences ears with delaying feedback! Finally Britain has produced a Lo-Fi band that looks to stick around for more than just the first album!
Set List:
1. Holding Out
2. The Wall
3. Shook Down
4. Georgia
5. Suicide Policeman
6. Milkshake
7. Get Away
8. Suck
9. Operation
10. Rubber
Review & Photos – James Hough