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After the triumph that was last year's Krankenhaus EP, and the release of new album Do You Like Rock Music? (answer: yes, if it all sounds like this), British Sea Power reached Nottingham in the midst of their January tour, and impressed as I have been of late by the band's soaring music, I found myself in Rescue Rooms on Tuesday night, thoroughly enjoying myself.
Why? Because it turns out British Sea Power are very good at every aspect of being a band, live and otherwise. The set spanned three albums worth, and covered almost all of my favourite tracks (neglecting to play, unsurprisingly, nine-minute epic 'The Pelican'). Please Stand Up, the best track from sophmore effort Open Season was fantastic, as was Atom, the song which opened the Krankenhaus EP and featured again on the new album.
The band were excitable, to say the least, with Noble performing his traditional scallywaggery, scaling the balcony of Rescue Rooms, throwing himself into the crowd halfway out of the venue and riding one crowdmember piggy-back style to the front again. Now that - that's rock and roll.
mp3: 'The Pelican' by British Sea Power
Just for future reference, a few things I would not like to take on single-handedly in a battle to the death: a honey badger, the T1000, Michael Jackson's groping hand, a racially-incensed woman of any ethnic minority, the British navy. And there, my friends, is the smoothest link ever made. I should be on tv.
British Sea Power are a band who have grown on me possibly slower than any other artist in my musical life. They are the Huon Pine within my forest of musical love, as opposed to yesterday's featured band, Alphabeat, who are far more like bamboo, I suppose. Why, I hear you ask, is this the case? Well, the band released their debut album in 2003, and having caught the end of their song Carrion on some music channel I rushed out and bought it. I was completely let down. With hindsight I can appreciate 'The Decline Of British Sea Power' better, though it still lies just outside of my heart musically. It had a pure and raw sound that I just wasn't ready for back then. I was only just discovering Coldplay. Uh-huh.
And then they released album number two, and the sound had changed. A little more gentle, a hell of a lot more melodious, but with enough raw passion remaining to keep them interesting. As a whole 'Open Season' has nothing particularly new to offer, but that didn't matter. Because on 'Open Season' was the song Please Stand Up. And my, how that hit me. It was like a revelation. It's a tad bolder than the rest of the album, and always finds itself on my playlists lodged between seventies rockers Lindisfarne and Tim Delaughter's pre-Polyphonic Spree band, Tripping Daisy. In fact, the best mixtape track combo of recent times for me was Please Stand Up followed by the Polyphonic Spree cover of Sonic Bloom. It's exciting, falling from note to note like a waterfall of pure pleasure-pop.
And now we find ourselves on the brink of the new year, and with that, the new album 'Do You Like Rock Music?'. In order to prepare us for the new release, and apparent new sound, BSP released an EP, 'Krankenhaus?' late this summer. Other than a fondness for question marks, what did it tell us? Oh, only that British Sea Power are about to burst into a whole new level of awesomeness. Imagine an English Arcade Fire, or a musically daring Athlete, and you aren't even halfway there. This band is about to break the barriers between them and success, and I'm not sure I'd dare to stand in their way.
mp3: 'Please Stand Up' by British Sea Power
mp3: 'Atom' by British Sea Power
