Lightspeed Champion + Ox Eagle Lion Man + Operator Please @ Birmingham Academy 2 1/5/08 (live review)
Lightspeed Champion, supported by Ox Eagle Lion Man and Operator Please. A line-up to die for on paper, but did these three very different acts work on the same bill? Birmingham’s Academy 2 was rammed to the rafters with a good blend of (admittedly young) folk: painfully fashionable scenesters; bespectacled mini-Devs; and everyone in between – all of whom were expecting their tenners to go a long way. They were not to be disappointed.
First to the stage is London’s Ox Eagle Lion Man, fronted by the eclectically charismatic and splendidly-monikered Frederick Blood-Royale, who crosses the stage in two swift strides, like a bespectacled cross between Skellington Jack, Simon Munnery, and Seth from the OC. The band’s half-hour set shudders into life in a cacophony of shimmering bells and dizzying feedback, before descending on the crowd like musical Jenga blocks. It’s faintly bizarre, but in the best possible way. “Give me back my body!” pleads Blood-Royale during Motherhood, rather oddly for a group of 20-something men, but it’s all good. Drama, humour, and education – clearly, Ox Eagle Lion Man were a fine choice to kick things off with. Their quirky cautionary tales complement Lightspeed Champion perfectly – Dev himself mooched onstage to duet with them. Operator Please had a tough act to follow.
Incidentally, they had nothing to worry about, not least because they had more of a following than OELM - a young band, lauded by mainstream and indie media alike were bound to go down well. The band The Gossip could be with a little more democracy, Australia’s Operator Please delighted the room with their particular brand of feisty girl/boy punk. Highlights included the fabulously single-minded Ping Pong Song (“it’s just a song about ping-pong!”) and current release Leave It Alone. Frontwoman Amandah Wilkinson, her dark hair tied back in girly bunches, ruled the stage with a voice that fails to belie her youth and diminutive stature. Brilliant, but rather strange bedfellows with the other bands on the bill.
Thankfully, Lightspeed Champion has always been about bringing different sub-genres together – indeed, Devonte Hynes has dabbled in more than he cares to remember, but he seems to have found his balance in this project. Less nervous than he seemed last time around (at Birmingham’s smaller Bar Academy venue), he and his backing band received the sort of rapturous welcome normally reserved for old friends, before tearing through most of the Under the Lavender Bridge album (and the Star Wars Imperial March). Highlights included Galaxy of the Lost and the beautiful epic Midnight Surprise. The lyrical strangeness of the former is everything that is so special about Mr. Hynes, and your heart breaks for him every time you hear the line “my bones feel like timber.” Regarding the latter, one imagines that exceeding five minutes is dangerous territory in live music (think RHCP and ‘funk’), but as the first bars pervade the atmosphere, and Hynes pleads “shoot me..,” the audience is in the palm of his hand. A scholar of Conor Oberst he may be, but based on tonight’s performance, Devonte Hynes will soon be outstripping his master.
Words by Claire Spencer
Photos by Isaac Strang
www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion
www.myspace.com/oxeaglelionman
www.myspace.com/operatorplease
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Bookmark and share this page with:First to the stage is London’s Ox Eagle Lion Man, fronted by the eclectically charismatic and splendidly-monikered Frederick Blood-Royale, who crosses the stage in two swift strides, like a bespectacled cross between Skellington Jack, Simon Munnery, and Seth from the OC. The band’s half-hour set shudders into life in a cacophony of shimmering bells and dizzying feedback, before descending on the crowd like musical Jenga blocks. It’s faintly bizarre, but in the best possible way. “Give me back my body!” pleads Blood-Royale during Motherhood, rather oddly for a group of 20-something men, but it’s all good. Drama, humour, and education – clearly, Ox Eagle Lion Man were a fine choice to kick things off with. Their quirky cautionary tales complement Lightspeed Champion perfectly – Dev himself mooched onstage to duet with them. Operator Please had a tough act to follow.
Incidentally, they had nothing to worry about, not least because they had more of a following than OELM - a young band, lauded by mainstream and indie media alike were bound to go down well. The band The Gossip could be with a little more democracy, Australia’s Operator Please delighted the room with their particular brand of feisty girl/boy punk. Highlights included the fabulously single-minded Ping Pong Song (“it’s just a song about ping-pong!”) and current release Leave It Alone. Frontwoman Amandah Wilkinson, her dark hair tied back in girly bunches, ruled the stage with a voice that fails to belie her youth and diminutive stature. Brilliant, but rather strange bedfellows with the other bands on the bill.Thankfully, Lightspeed Champion has always been about bringing different sub-genres together – indeed, Devonte Hynes has dabbled in more than he cares to remember, but he seems to have found his balance in this project. Less nervous than he seemed last time around (at Birmingham’s smaller Bar Academy venue), he and his backing band received the sort of rapturous welcome normally reserved for old friends, before tearing through most of the Under the Lavender Bridge album (and the Star Wars Imperial March). Highlights included Galaxy of the Lost and the beautiful epic Midnight Surprise. The lyrical strangeness of the former is everything that is so special about Mr. Hynes, and your heart breaks for him every time you hear the line “my bones feel like timber.” Regarding the latter, one imagines that exceeding five minutes is dangerous territory in live music (think RHCP and ‘funk’), but as the first bars pervade the atmosphere, and Hynes pleads “shoot me..,” the audience is in the palm of his hand. A scholar of Conor Oberst he may be, but based on tonight’s performance, Devonte Hynes will soon be outstripping his master.
Words by Claire Spencer
Photos by Isaac Strang
www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion
www.myspace.com/oxeaglelionman
www.myspace.com/operatorplease
Click here to read more Lightspeed Champion related news, reviews & interviews!
Buy Lightspeed Champion CDs & Vinyl
Buy Lightspeed Champion MP3s
Buy Lightspeed Champion Tickets
Buy Lightspeed Champion Merch
