GIG REVIEW: Milburn
- Posted on October 1, 2007 12:57 PM
- 0 comments
'These are the Facts' - Naima Khan
I heard somewhere that we metropolitan type folks are hard to please. Apparently rural crowds out in the sticks will use any excuse to turn a mosh pit into a death trap but we city slickers are a bit harder to get moving. Well, if this is the case, the Astoria crowd did Londoners everywhere proud. Given that Milburn are one of the most unpretentious young bands around and the Astoria is a decent but somewhat standard venue the crowd had only the music to pump them up. Turns out, this was more than enough.
Milburn have been playing sold out gigs all over the UK but the Astoria isn’t packed. It would seem Londoners are still to warm to this Sheffield quartet. It seems Sheffield has been breeding a certain type of sound recently and the Milburn boys are happy to embrace it. Here are a band that need to be heard live. It’s not hard to appreciate the album but you’ll really need to blast it to get the same energy pouring from the tracks played right in front of you. The band remains fairly stationary throughout; -they’re not the bopping type- but the crowd go wild.
The Astoria is a pretty generic venue there’s a decent balcony view with space to sit or stand depending on how ripe a Milburn fan you are. The lighting was a bit unnecessary at times, not much to offer by way of a night out but with the mean age of the crowd hitting about 19, and their blood alcohol about 4.0 you can be sure a Milburn gig doesn’t need a grandiose setting.
Milburn are truly unassuming in their performance. There are few spectacular intros, no unnecessary build up they tend to just go straight into every track with refreshingly little dialogue or preamble. Not that these boys lack charisma, but their music is engrossing and from my balcony view it’s clear the crowd are enthralled by Joe Carnall plays his bass like a madman. Milburn are not particularly charming but their songs are; as are their blunt undemanding lyrics. Some classic hooks to be heard in ‘What will you do (when the money goes)’ and ‘Send in the Boys’ Though Milburn clearly aren’t out to be catchy, they are nonetheless truly impressive performers, just what young indie rock is supposed to be.
Want more? Check out our Milburn interview... the lads tell all.
Milburn MySpace
Were you there? Did you rate Milburn? Post your own review in our comments section.
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