Wading through a psychedelic session with THE EARLY YEARS feels oddly like riding a very cool fairground teacup ride that just happens to be run by your nervous uncle.It's all great fun as you twirl and swirl through the verses, but the twitchy beggar shuts off the ride before the big hair-raising climax.
The rapt fans who flocked to Kilburn's Luminaire on a glum Monday night clearly appreciate a good chemical trip. The Hackney-based mood band's hour-long set was yelled on like a horse with a £50 bet riding on it. And The Early Years are better at setting a mood than a lava lamp in a student bedsit. Swirling light effects washed over the darkened stage as the band launched into humming instrumental evoking The Verve's 1993
debut A Storm In Heaven.
But even the cavernous hollows of shoegazing indie psychedelia need the odd hook somewhere.The rich swell of the band's vast build-up doesn't often lead to a natural chorus, striking vocal or distinctive riff. And while that's not so big a deal for those who've already holed up in their bedrooms with the band's self-titled debut album, it's certainly enough to make the non-trippers feel a little heavy on their feet.
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On record, the sonic sprawl is most likely a hypnotic delight. But the live combination of slow Joshua Tree-esque numbers and seven-minute shimmering soundscapes feels a little over-cautious, like a child nervously half-tugging an elastic band while petrified it's going to snap upwards into his eyeball.
Nervous is not a word that can be applied to main support act WOLF AND CUB - not unless you want four drumsticks poked in your eye. The Adelaide band have obviously become adept at packing, because they have to cram two drummers on stage every gig.
And when it works, the stereo power thud slam down is like being woken in the dead of night by vigilantes knocking on the door with lead truncheons.
Wolf and Cub have plenty of thump, and the busy guitar riffery of ahundred kids trying out axes in music shops. But this ferocious noise needs a howling Robert Plant vocal like the
surviving passengers in the film Alive needed a handy Taco Bell.
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