Concorde2, 12th October 2008

I didn’t realise that this gig was a 14+ until I was walking in beneath the Concorde 2 sign. Weirdly, the doors were displaying the exact set times of each band. “So that the kids can arrange lifts?” I thought, smirking. At this point I saw a middle-aged dad saying his goodbyes to his petrified looking daughter at the bar. At a mere nine years older than the required entry age, it is rare that I feel old, but boy, I did tonight.The supporting band of the night, Swanton Bombs, were wedding reception rejects in disguise. Looking respectfully old at around 18, these two lads’ rock’n’roll swing was totally out of place. It was dull and wasn’t doing a good job of hyping up the crowd for the main act.

I’m not really sure what the roadies were doing during the swap-over but we were forced to wait half an hour for Cajun Dance Party. As I scanned the room, I realised that the advantage of being surrounded by teens was that there was not much danger of someone taller standing directly in front of me.

When Cajun Dance Party came to the stage, girls actually started screaming (I haven’t experienced this since the boy band phase) and some kind of munchkin mosh pit formed. The blur of four leather-jacketed Albert Hammonds plus one Kate Bush looked genuinely surprised at the cheers of the crowd when they opened with “Colourful Life”. A few new tracks were let loose, like “Five Days” and “Frozen Garden” but as lead vocalist Daniel Blumberg was singing “I’m so excited” I was feeling the exact opposite. He has a distinctive carrying voice but the whole performance was lacking in enthusiasm. But in the penultimate song, keyboardist Kate Bush-alike (real name Vicky Freund) unleashed her voice and I was surprised at its soft yet glacial quality. The essential lacking energy was saved for the last song, “The Next Untouchable”, by which time it was a little too late. As the lyrics said: “All I can do is say better luck next time”. You took the words right out of my mouth.

Words by Amy Rutter
Photography by Jarvis Osbourne