Win a flight on the London Eye + a Fantastic River Cruise
Do not adjust your sets, op art is all about creating conundrums for your mind...
Gig Review: The Automatic at Cardiff University, Cardiff - 23 October 2006
feature
Three girls carried away by security staff, bottles of water thrown overhead into the audience and several failed attempts to whistle with both fingers by an overexcited fan next to me. And The Automatic had yet to appear on stage.
When the band; Rob Hawkins, James Frost, Alex Pennie and Iwan Griffiths, finally made their entrance at 10pm, the crowd had descended into a subdued mode and seemed relieved that they were at last on stage.
But if anyone had started to wind down from the exit of the last support act, the bright psychedelic lights that beamed onto the audience, flashing intermittently at a frenzied pace, certainly wakened them up with a jolt.
Described as having a disco-rock sound, The Automatic have only been together a couple of years with their music hitting the mainstream public domain earlier this year.
And here they were, on a dreary wet and windy night in Cardiff, appearing in front of their hometown audience, in essence, back to where it all began. Their current UK tour has given their growing fan base a chance to catch the band live, performing all the tracks from their debut album ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’.
I had been told to expect an ‘excitable’ performance from the lads - I underestimated just how enthusiastic this Welsh band could be on stage; singing live, thrashing their guitars and drums and belting out those shout-along-with-us lyrics.
Synth and percussion maestro, Alex, was completely absorbed by the music, moving in a volatile atom-about-to-explode manner. Watching him was like a workout in itself. And his scratchy high vocals were even more prominent live than on their album, especially on the track ‘That’s What She Said’.
Wearing a soaked-through grey t-shirt, lead singer and guitarist Rob also had a lively stage presence. But unlike his band mate, he didn’t bundle across the stage quite as much or move as frantically. Just as well really, as this gave him the chance to concentrate on his vocals.
The big crowd crush came with the opening to ‘Monster’. As the band admitted, you either instinctively love it or hate it; this crowd loved it. This was the most animated the crowd would get all night, jumping about together in stereotypical gig like fashion.
Possibly transfixed with those unrelenting purple, yellow and blue flashing lights, the crowd were also receptive to the tracks ‘Raoul’ and ‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’. The only ‘mellow’ tune, if it can be deemed as such, was ‘Lost at Home’. This was a chance for the temperature to dip a few degrees after all that energetic bouncing around.
The opening to ‘By My Side’, with their signature synth arrangement, sounded rather creepy as it blared out loudly from the speakers. The song, infused with the band’s lyrical concoction of questioning the conventional, evident throughout their album, provided another ambient performance.
And to add that extra something the band performed their own version of Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger’. This was an opportunity for Alex to take the lead and display those distinctive screeching vocals to full impact. It was certainly different…
Closing with their hit ‘Recover’, The Automatic’s gig was over - for now. And after such a buzzing show from the boys, it seems inevitable that they’ll be back on tour again to liven up another venue with their alternative, fast-paced sound accompanied, of course, with those blinding lights!
