Live
I'll come clean, I'm not a big fan of thrash. But Napalm Death are CLASSIC thrash, and so I decided to give it a go anyway. When I arrived at the Zodiac I was confronted by a large number of long-haired bedenimed men in their early forties. Jesus, thought I, I'm not going to mosh. These people were the passed masters of killing innocent people in a pogoing frenzy. So I quietly sloped off to the bar and hid in a corner with my pint of Foster's.
"Alroyt, we're Naypawm Deff. Ear wi gau!" said a surprisingly subdued Barney Greenway. Subdued, that was, until he let rip with a full-on assault of the senses. Although the only near-original member of the band was Shane Embury (poodle-permed bassist), many of the songs were classics from the early years, such as 'Scum' and 'The World Keeps Turning'. The crowd seemed to appreciate every song, in fact some of the die-hards knew which song was going to be played before Greenway announced it. Speaking of the die-hards, it was as if the set was being played to the ten blokes at the back, members of the band flipped the crowd an innocuous thumbs-up at various points and more or less ignored the fourteen year old moshers at the front. Hidden in the set were covers of the Dead Kennedies and an Italian thrash band whose name escapes me. The song was Politicians, though.
All in all this was a brilliant night, not only for the music but also the YamYam-ness of it all.
Graham Lee
First band on? Well, things took a while to get going, and the people I thought were cool in the bar previously, turned out to be the first on - indeed, none other than the lauded Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia. If you've ever wondered what being in a band does for you, well here is the perfect illustration. It allows you to eat your own Pringles in the bar and even drop them on the floor with a modicum of coolness. On to the music: predictably, Meanwhile... were brilliant. Staccato drum machine beats, minimal keyboard backdrops fitting in like Eno behind U2. The guitar work was complicated, and undoubtedly excellent. My complaints? Well, the lead singer was too fit. No - let's be objective, she didn't really sing as much as monologue over this rush of music. It did work, but it was no Beth Gibbons. The girl next to me, herself from Athens, Georgia, said at one point, "She's got a real Patti Smith going". I just smiled and dipped my head back, imbibing yet more cider.
Next up were Junior Hacksaw. As they came on with some powerchordage and tight guitars, I muttered something about a Supergrass without the hairy one, and I was nearly right. Great songs, tightly played, more poppy and direct than Meanwhile... could or even want to be. I predict a future filled full of money and a lack of real soul. But then they did have a try...
The Incredible Fuckwits put me off by their name alone - if I wanted to be played to by fuckwits, I would purposely buy a boy band festival ticket and a time machine so as to re-live it over and over. Jokes about cumming in the shape of middle eastern countries are all well and good in their place - probably on some Channel Four comedy show too fucked up to be shown at a reasonable hour. With the kind of music that we had previously, their brand of hurtfully direct and straightforward Status Quo chordage was - restrictive. To be fair, the lead singer did nearly start a fight and it was a rocking moment in an otherwise rather less than 'rocking' gig. People were sitting down, and people who sit down at gigs should be cattle prodded back to fucking Milton Keynes.
Meanwhile... won, no surprises there. Gurdeep Mattu
Djevara are a young band from Coventry, who sound like a cross between Rage Against the Machine and The Offspring. Only funkier. They haven't been together long, but they've already been noticed and duly booked to play at the Reading Festival. From the looks of tonight's show, they'll go far.
This was Djevara's first show in Oxford, and it was obvious that they were out to impress. First up was 'Child in Armour', a typically diverse tune, with its deceptively mellow opening, all strummed guitars and smooth vocals swinging suddenly into an energetic, fast-paced rockathon of a chorus. The style defies classification - there are hints of The Offspring, Metallica and Ash - but this has never been a problem for them. Where some bands may have floundered, devoid of a recognisable identity and safe little genre within which to mass-produce mediocre bollocks, Djevara simply eschew the stereotypes and get on with the music. This is their greatest advantage. 'Land of the Free' and 'God is White' are funky, rap-rock numbers, 'Shivers' is a catchy, punky tune, and 'The Last Place You Look' is a powerfully emotive instrumental medley. Every song on the set is played with enough passion and verve to convert even the most reluctant observer to the Djevara cause. Frontman Usuyak Bassey expertly plays to the crowd, leaping, dancing and even kicking over his microphone stand in a frenzy of musical ecstasy. Their one-hour set flew by and, as the last notes faded away, we were left wondering how the hell we'd managed to have so much fun in such a crap venue. Such is the power of a damn good live show.
Pedro Wrobel
17th May 2001