LOVE IS THE ONLY CERTAINTY

Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family @ The Fopp, Tottenham Court Road – Thursday 14 September

The new Fopp on Tottenham Court Road is heaven. When I die, it is where I want to end up, which makes it an oddly appropriate venue to see “Funerals with Frost” as 22-year-old Mancunian Liam Frost calls it. The loss of both his father and brother certainly has had a strong effect on Frost’s music, particularly the movingly beautiful Try Try Try, but don’t worry, it’s not all depressing. On-stage, Frost is like a big kid, revelling in the joy of performing, joking about the perils of singing from the diaphragm (for the unenlightened, it makes you burp) and inventing the T-shirt-hat, which will be the fashion accessory of 2007.

More than that, though, Frost’s emo-tinged lyrics have a sense of hope that makes his songs somehow uplifting, despite the poignant subject matter. In The Mourners Of St Paul’s, for example, “Let the funeral start” is sung with such optimism that you can’t help but think that no matter what happens, everything will be ok. Frost has been accused of being too introspective, but that is what makes his lyrics. They are universal because they are so personal. Musically, however, everyone is in agreement that Frost’s debut offering is stunning. If Tonight We Could Only Sleep is a particular highlight, with haunting backing vocals from Slowdown Family member, Sadie Baker.

After their breathtaking set, Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family are the most loveable people you could ever meet, engaging in joyful banter and group hugs with the fans, posing with the band-stalking lump of concrete known as Mr Brick, and attacking each other with silver pens. It’s only seeing this that you realise just how young Frost and his band mates are, how accomplished they already are, and how much potential they have. Is Liam Frost “the UK’s answer to Bright Eyes” as people are claiming he his? Honestly, no, but then, with so much talent of his own, who would want him to be?

Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family’s debut album, Show Me How The Spectres Dance, is available now on LaVolta.

Fuck The Cistern!

TOILET @ NAMBUCCA
Nambucca, 596 Holloway Road, London - Friday 18 August

The toilets at Nambucca are an obvious attraction, which would require a whole article for itself. However, stories of bouncers wrestling drunken fans in pools of piss will sadly have to wait for another day, as, despite its misleading name, Toilet is about so much more than the goings on in graffiti-covered cubicles. It is, in fact, a roomful of gorgeous indie kids flailing to four amazing bands. What more could a girl want?

The entertainment starts as soon as we walk through the door, with a man, who’d clearly been in the North London pub for a while already, table dancing - just a sample of what is to come over the course of the night. Before long, William Kay (www.myspace.com/williamkay) start the evening properly with their Libertines-esque tunes. Their introduction to Bonnie & Clyde – “This is Bonnie & Clyde, which was also a film, and a song by Jay-Z, so it must be good”, thumbs up, cute smile – leaves all the girls swooning, and by ending their set with a raucous version of I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book they keep us big-kids very happy.

Next up is Awful Sparks (www.myspace.com/awfulsparks), whose short sharp bursts of ‘office funk’, as they like to call it, including the ridiculously catchy International Toughguy, are so much fun to dance to, and to watch, as singer Patrick thrashes around with infectious enthusiasm. They are clearly having so much fun that we can’t help enjoying ourselves too, especially when Patrick finally gives in to the crowd’s demands and removes his shirt.

Friends of the Sparks, Oxford five-piece The Mules (www.myspace.com/itsthemules), then take to the stage, but have trouble getting the aforementioned table-dancer, who has now taken to pretending he owns Nambucca, away from the microphone. Eventually, they get the chance to play, and it’s so worth the wait. The Mules say they “enjoy both kinds of music, country and western”, and this way of story telling has clearly had an effect on their lyrics, but their songs pack much more of a punch than any country and western act. With hits like Polly-O and Tule Lake, taken from their recently released album, Save You Face (buy it now!), they work the crowd up into a throbbing, sweaty frenzy, leaving us feeling euphoric and the floor so wet it becomes a safety hazard.

After a brief break, when we all desperately intake liquids, the moment I have been waiting for for weeks finally arrives. Any band labelled by Carl Barât as “like The Sex Pistols meets The Cheeky Girls” is bound to be brilliant, and Crash Convention (www.crashconvention.com) do not disappoint. Opening with their latest addictive demo, Pirates, Crash Convention capture the crowd, and leave us enthralled until the end. The fans, like myself, shout the words along with the band that they clearly love, and the sense of community this creates is incredible. Songs from the hauntingly beautiful St Catherine’s Oratory to the energetic, feel-good next single Abandon Ship, combined with the band’s stage presence, and overwhelming likeability, set them apart from the hordes of current indie scene bands, ensuring that Crash Convention are destined for great things.

The night ends on a toilet theme, with a DJ set from Fuck The Cistern, and we leave exhausted and dishevelled, but extremely happy, having seen some of the best new bands in London at the moment.