Trisickle Magazine

TriPod – Chapman Family @ Ruby Lounge, Manchester

This Artrocker-organised night pitched two of the country’s hottest new bands together, with The Chapman Family’s raw, powerful, aggressive show coming out on top.

O.Children kicked things off after the forgettable (their words, honest) The Tunics, but it was their newly-showcased material which hit sprawling, glorious, epic heights, rather than songs from their 2010 debut. Lead singer Tobi O’Kandi stalks the stage, all in black, punching the roof with his fists. In fact, he’s so tall if he leapt around he’d knock himself out. He’s so tall, his crotch is at exact eye level. He also has a voice deep enough to make Barry White jealous.

But the music is distraction enough from that. Half of their show seems to be about learning to drive. When you can create grooves and moods like this, who needs driving?

In contrast to O.Children’s languid at times doom-rock, The Chapman Family’s Teesside rage picks you up and shakes you – literally – by the end. We’ve all been waiting for the exciting, immersive and vital new punk rock to arrive out of ‘Broken Britain’ in ‘the age of austerity’. Well, here you have it. Latest single Anxiety gets the set flying after an oddly tepid opening and flat All Fall, but it’s their best track, next single Sound of the Radio that gets the night going, before the kids down the front go wild for, well, Kids.

Singer Kingsley switches between north-eastern drawls and guttural howls, Paul on guitar does his best impression of a bored Interpol musician in the corner and bassist Pop glares antagonistically into the crowd, daring you to catch his eye. He ends the gig in the audience, grabbing random people and yelling in their faces.

Speaking of the Million Dollars climax, Kingsley is performing his party trick of strangling himself with his microphone lead. Even if you know it’s coming, the methodical manner of the act is still shocking, even harrowing.

But that seems to be half the point of this band. With their often simple yet evocative lyrics (“The kids are not all right, the kids are not okay” and “You are not alone”) and calling iTunes users “cyber cunts”, the message here is clear.

The world is shit and we’re all fucked, so we might as well go down screaming.

Do stuff

Archives