The Rakes / White Rose Movement

Embracing the foreboding darkness of the dimly lit Leadmill stage, White Rose Movement are like fierce military manoeuvres intending to attack deep. Their outstanding synth rock calls on The Cure and a fearsomely inverted Human League, it cuts straight to the arteries, pumping its way round your body in a manner so visceral it’s hard not to be completely consumed by it.

Having Paul Epworth, the current Hippest Producer On The Block fiddling with the stop and record buttons on their imminent debut album has not only brought them added exposure, but with it a higher sense of expectation. Thankfully it appears the band could have survived fine without him, as although they draw heavy influence from the 80’s alternative, they’ve moulded themselves a sound so fresh and prominent that it stands out effortlessly when set amongst the current wave of indie amp-fiddlers (including those borne of the Epworth camp).

Lead singer Finn Vine is statuesque but menacing, it’s as if every yelp leaving his tongue is driven from a place of deep inner torment. However, the band’s collective despair is not a gloomy, self-righteous affair that only the meanest of goths might appreciate, but manages to encapsulate a profound sense of loneliness, which you suspect even the chirpiest of lads who’s come along to get pissed up and sing along to The Rakes can take a moment from balance eroding pint-swilling to feel impressed by.

Former single ‘Love Is A Number’ and pop monolith ‘Girls In The Back’ receive the largest responses. Most of the audience watch attentively, trying to make sense of the broody conglomerate of emotion the band emit, but once the album’s out and they’re performing in their own headline space, they should become a group at the pinnacle of new music innovation in 2006.

The Rakes are the antithesis of Arctic Monkeys Phenomena, by which a band get launched into the spotlight by press hyperbole and people’s general desire to believe they’re a part of something life changing, having grown slowly but surely over the past three years with an ever-expanding fan-base and now a large, high-profile UK tour. With their solid following they’ve neatly sidestepped any marketing overstatement or hot-air distortion as ‘The Next Big Thing’ and their string of sold-out London shows is a testament of their success whilst doing so.

The crowd are braced with willing anticipation and as things kick off with the angular dance spark plug that is ‘Terror!’ the formidable pleasure of knowing there’s nothing but love for the band in the room motivates impassioned jumping, cheering and the kind of indie dancing that looks like the warehouse of a robot factory when all the robots have short circuited and are crashing into each other, going nuts.

‘Retreat’ and ‘Work Work Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)’ have become bona fide classics, but album tracks like ‘Open Book’ and ‘The Guilt’ garner just as much applause. New single ‘All Too Human’ doesn’t quite capture the same base pop sensibilities of ‘22 Grand Job’, but the temporary lull just gives people a breather to get ready for the next hit.

Their material, although largely excellent, doesn’t quite stretch the entire breadth of a headline-length set, and the inclusion of an embarrassing song about Celebrity Big Brother (Chorus: ‘We don’t know why George Galloway had to go’) doesn’t come across as witty or current – just as misguided filler.

Still, the show picks up soon after and finishing it all with a thundering ‘Strasbourg’ it’s clear that this tour is merely a victory lap for a band who’ve overcome the odds as a huge success, winning the hearts of thousands. Hopefully album two will be as immediate and endearing as the first one, but even if it’s not and the glory days are already over, now will be a time that The Rakes should always cherish.

FUTURE GIGS

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