The Noisettes / Komakino / Hot Club De Paris

Manchester’s Night & Day is tucked away in the crème of the northern quarter, just a short trek from Picadilly Gardens and is one of those small venues in which you subconsciously dress up or grunge yourself down to attend. The drinks are a little pricey, and you don’t actually need to smoke, for everyone else stands there chuffing it away for you, but this little café/bar has a distinct charisma about itself. From the shady windows to the intricate stage and wonderland lighting, the venue seems popular for giving new born bands an almost certain positive gig experience.

Hot Club De Paris opened tonight in a barber shop quartet (well actually trio) with their song “Welcome to the Hot Club”. Paul, Alasdair and Matthew are a group of friends from Liverpool with a passion for playing their instruments loud and proud, and a talent for keeping a crowd entertained. Describing their sound as “pop meets folk”, the trio jumped and bounced around the stage with a relentless energy, thriving on the audience’s reactions and delivering marvellous tracks such as “Your face looks all wrong” and “Every, every, everything” whilst boasting such skills as beat boxing and non instrumental harmonies. The sweat pouring off them during their last song, justified the input and soul they put into their set, and with a sound ranging from Bloc Party to the Arctic Monkeys, this is definitely a band you don’t want to miss for 2006.

Komakino took to the stage next, a group from Derby who fall into the indie/alternative genre. Now, I feel for this band. In their own right, they ARE good. Vocalist Ryan Needham holds one of those slightly nasal, high pitched sounds but yet seemed to work wonders with a microphone and was clearly a front man who believed in the music he was playing. However, trying to follow Hot Club was a hard act to follow, and Komakino just didn’t seem to have the stage presence or the energy to keep my full attention, although their songs “Say Something” and “The Last Defence” are tracks worth downloading and having a listen to. A good effort, but they had rather big shoes to fill.

After a slight delay, the stars of the night The Noisettes came on, an odd looking trio who you could never quite imagine sitting in a pub together and yet on stage, their oddness was portrayed more as wonderfully weird. Leading lady Shingai Shoniwa (with a name like that you’re bound to be famous really) was evidently not just a singer but an actress with it. Her body language and facial expressions were mesmerising, whether she was crouched over her guitar or gallivanting around the front of the stage and dipping her body down into the audience, you really could not help but stare at her in all her rock n roll glory. And the rest of the band were just as enchanting, Dan Smith provided some great harmonies and drummer Jamie Morrison gave it his all, thrashing around on the kit like an excitable child at Christmas. The Noisettes have a hard sound to try and categorise, but they have extracts of rock n roll, indie to grunge, and Shingai’s voice scales from low and husky to sweet and screechy. “Scratch your name” is catchy tune, whilst “Nothing to dread” is more for the head banging and foot stamping. A truly talented band with much variety and enthusiasm, and really understanding the meaning of “performance.”

All 3 bands have their tracks up on Myspace so go and have a look. Seriously. Now….

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.