Knives out as bands look sharp (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Knives out as bands look sharp

2:19pm Thursday 6th March 2008 in

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BD1 LiVE featuring The Young Knives, Johnny Foreigner, hey! Panda
St George's Hall, Bradford

With cold winds approaching gale force magnitude rushing throughout the city centre, the entrance to St George's Hall seemed more welcoming than ever.

Inside crowds were gathering for what was the second of two tantalising BD1 LiVE gigs in February, and the end of what has been a quality month for quality music in the city.

Tonight however was one of the highlights of the entire BD1 LiVE phenomenon, as those endearingly weird post-punkers The Young Knives were in town for what turned out to be a cracking show.

It started rather dubiously, however, with Halifax disco noise-makers hey! Panda - four teenagers who apparently only started gigging two months ago.

Bearing this in mind, tonight's performance was rather impressive. An eclectic mix of shambolic wig-outs and high tempo beats was how you would imagine The Fall to sound following a date with The Rapture.

It was hard to tell whether the manic, free-for-all qualities of their performance was down to a lack of practice and experience, or whether they were already succeeding in their entertaining intentions.

Either way, it worked quite well, although their choice of covers was a little baffling, with the original material being far fresher.

And the passion and energy on stage was sure to have set the hearts of some of the young teenage fans at the front of the stage fluttering.

No doubt at all - one to watch out for.

From the first few bars of the opening song from Johnny Foreigner however, it was clear we were in for an altogether more cohesive and focused outfit.

Again, these noiseoiks provided us with some wonderfully feedback drenched guitar workings, yet interspersed throughout were lovingly crafted melodies, delivered with an air of panache and longing by relay vocalists Alexei and Kelly.

With his floppy fringe consistently covering his face and his fingers a blur, guitarist and singer Alexei was a particularly charismatic version of a young English Thurston Moore.

This of course left us with the much-lauded The Young Knives, who played St George's Hall as part of a nationwide tour to promote their upcoming album.

As expected then, much of the set was devoted to new and by-and-large unheard, tracks.

Some of the band's more famous, older material was littered throughout the night, including stomping opener She's Attracted To, crowd pleaser Hot Summer and more recent single Terra Firma.

However it was the new songs which dominated proceedings, offering an intriguing insight into this band's future.

While certain tracks retained the post-punk/funk inspired formula which has served them well in recent times, the inclusion of a string trio and some much darker, strenuous sounds, offers a whole new side to this geeky' combo.

The song-writing craft which brought them relatively minor hits such as The Decision, was still evident but the presentation of these songs has gained a new maturity.

Another success for the BD1 LiVE boys.